St Raphael’s School Parkside students Hannah Erwin (6) and Maksim Straga (6) with Yr 7 students Isabel Devitt (12) and Christian Vella (12). Pic: Tricia Watkinson.
Source: News Corp Australia
THE state’s Catholic education system faces a major revamp that would move Year 7 students from primary to high schools, as well as an expand preschool and childcare programs.
New schools in growth areas and mergers in others are also proposed in a strategy paper by the SA Commission for Catholic Schools.
The commission, which is the policy-making authority for the 103 Catholic schools that educate 50,000 children, or about one-in-five students in SA, says fundamental changes are needed to adapt to the economic and demographic challenges facing the state.
The suite of proposals is designed to bring more children into the Catholic system from their earliest years and retain them through to Year 12.
The paper states that if the shifting of Year 7 is approved, to align with “the structure of the Australian curriculum and for consistency with other states”, the change could be rolled out across metropolitan Catholic schools in 2019 and 2020.
Such a move would again put pressure on the State Government to make the change in public schools, as SA is the only state where Year 7 remains in government primary schools. The issue was thrashed out in the state election campaign last year.
SA Commission for Catholic Schools chairman Professor Denis Ralph said the Catholic system would receive a $7 million boost if its more than 3400 Year 7s were funded by the federal and state governments as secondary instead of primary students.
Prof Ralph, a former Education Department CEO, said Year 7s were older and “more mature” than they used to be, so were capable of handling the transition to high school. But he conceded some primary principals feared for the viability of their schools without them.
In some cases, the loss of Year 7s could be offset by adding preschools to merged schools, with capital works funded from sales of surplus campuses.
Year 7 already marks the beginning of middle schooling in many R-12 schools across all education sectors, while independent schools follow a range of structures.
The Catholic sector, which has relatively few preschools, aims to progressively open more playgroups, childcare programs and preschools across the state, and is hopeful of securing more State Government support.
“It is an area in which we have not taken enough initiative in the past,” Prof Ralph said.
The strategy paper identifies the northern and southern suburbs and Adelaide Hills as growth areas.
A new R-12 school in the north, serving residential developments at Buckland Park and Munno Para, will be investigated, as will expanding secondary Xavier College into an R-12 school.
Galilee Catholic School at Aldinga and St Joseph’s School at Murray Bridge could extend firstly to Year 9 and later to Year 12.
The two Catholic technical colleges, St Patrick’s at Edinburgh North and Marcellin at Christie Downs, need more students and will have their business models scrutinised. They could be combined but it is not clear how.
The strategy paper follows extensive consultation with school leaders. Principals, parents and school boards will again be engaged before the commission makes any decisions at the end of the year. Financial modelling will be done on the reforms in the meantime, and new policies written for handling school mergers and closures.
Archbishop Philip Wilson, who this week was charged with concealing sex-abuse allegations in NSW in the 1970s, is a commission member. Prof Ralph said the commission would stick with its decision-making process regardless of how Archbishop Wilson’s situation unfolded.
A separate Catholic review on the single-intake policy for Reception will be completed by midyear. The Catholic system fell in line with public schools last year but some Riverland Catholic schools have been given permission for a midyear intake.
The State Government has maintained that moving Year 7s in public schools would cost hundreds of millions of dollars for no proved educational benefit. Education Minister Susan Close yesterday confirmed the policy had not changed.
Opposition education spokesman David Pisoni said the State Government was now isolated in failing to recognise the benefits of more specialised classes and teachers that Year 7s would have in high schools.
St Raphael’s School, Parkside, principal Leanne Lawler said the review of the Catholic system was “very positive’ but declined to be drawn on moving Year 7s.
“I think they are doing it very thoroughly and the important thing is that all the stakeholders are being involved,” she said.
SA Commission for Catholic Schools proposes shifting Year 7 into high school
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