Shellharbour Anglican College

I have debated whether to write this, but I feel strongly that families should be able to share their experiences when they believe their children’s educational needs are not being adequately met. Our family has recently made the very difficult decision to move our child to another school because the school Shellharbour Anglican College was attending was unable to provide access to the advanced mathematics pathway he needed. During Term 1, we met with the school and were told that Advanced Mathematics could not be offered to any other students because of limitations with staffing/resources and they would only have one class. Instead, our child was told he could learn online what the advanced class were being taught as there were exercises he could do himself.. We raised our concerns several times and attended numerous meetings. Eventually, we were told by the Principal that if we were not happy with the response, we could look for another school. We were also told that there was no other school in the Illawarra that would be able to accommodate our child in advanced courses. So we did exactly that. After contacting another school, we were told that there was a position available and that our child could access the advanced studies he needed. We notified his current school that we would be leaving and asked whether the fees for the following term could be reconsidered, given that the school had been unable to provide the educational opportunity / services required and had advised us to look elsewhere. The response? NO response from the principal until a letter of demand 12 weeks later was received from the accounting department. We contacted the principal again via email but only receive a response from the secretary to say We are still expected to pay the full term’s fees because sufficient notice was apparently not provided. This is where we struggle. We are not asking to avoid paying school fees simply because we changed schools. We are questioning why families should be required to pay for a full term when the school has acknowledged that it cannot provide the educational service required, and has effectively told the family to find another school. Communication throughout this process has also been incredibly frustrating. Despite numerous meetings, we have found that the principal has largely communicated through administration staff rather than directly engaging with us. When parents are raising genuine concerns about their child’s education, we believe they deserve open, direct and respectful communication from the person responsible for the school. We have also raised concerns about academic outcomes, including the school’s declining ATAR results. We understand completely that ATAR is not the only measure of a school’s success. We also understand and respect that the school has a strong focus on the arts, and that is wonderful for students pursuing that pathway. But what about the students who want to pursue university, higher-level academic subjects and degrees? From our experience, access to advanced subjects in Years 7–10 appears limited, with only one class available in some subjects. If a school cannot provide those opportunities because of staffing or funding limitations, we believe families deserve honesty about that — and they deserve to be able to make informed decisions about their children’s education without being financially penalised for doing so. We don’t object to paying for education. We object to paying for an education that isn’t being provided. Our child deserves to have his educational aspirations supported. Every child does. This experience has been incredibly disappointing, and we sincerely hope the school takes a serious look at how it communicates with families, how it supports academically motivated students, and how it handles situations where it cannot provide the subjects or services a child requires. At the end of the day, this isn’t about attacking a school. It’s about asking a very simple question: if a school cannot provide what a child needs, shouldn’t the child’s education come first? What are we paying for a full term of fees when the school cannot provide its documented services to educate the child.

Teachers are really supportive but students are really rude and bullying happens a lot.

Good school. Good people. Good food. Good uniform. Good dress code. Good teachers.