An all-boys school which promised to be the first in Australia to deliver a classical education spanning Plato to Aristotle will close its doors just four years after opening because it failed to attract enough students.
Eastern suburbs school Hartford College, in Daceyville, told parents last week the school would cease to operate at the end of this year. Its 35 students from year 5 to 10 are to be given places in nearby systemic Catholic Schools.
“The decision was not reached quickly or lightly,” the school said in a statement.
“The Board considered all available options for Hartford’s future before determining that this was the most appropriate path forward.”
Parents were told late last Thursday about the closure plans and asked to attend a meeting at 8am the following day.
“It got heated as you would expect,” said one parent at the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
At the centre of parent frustration with the school board is the lack of warning or disclosure about how dire the situation was.
“We took the news pretty badly. One dad tried to speak but he had to excuse himself. He was beside himself,” the parent said.
Parent frustration at the meeting last Friday centred on the lack of exploration of options to boost enrolments, including going co-ed, but that had also been dismissed.
The school board’s head Peter Foley, who is also director of finance at the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, said all available options for its future were being considered.
“The Board remains committed to continuing Hartford College’s distinctive model of classical education and academic excellence, and is open to exploring opportunities to do so presented by parents, educators and other interested stakeholders,” he said.
At a second parent meeting held on Sunday, parents resolved to try to keep the school open for another year.
They launched a petition calling on the Sydney archbishop to suspend the closure, provide a 12-month financial “bridge” so the community could build a turnaround plan before making a final decision in June 2027.
“If the turnaround hasn’t worked, families will still have six months to find the right school for 2028 rather than six weeks,” it said.
The school was founded in 2023 and funded by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, inspired by a conservative political and religious movement in the United States to revive liberal arts-style education. It is part of the US-based Chesterton Schools Network of 60 Catholic classical high schools.
At its opening in February 2023, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said the school, offering classes from year 5 to year 10, would soon “gain a name for itself, grow in enrolments, and fill a long vacant niche”.
While it had been characterised as a Catholic conservative school where students studied the classics, many non-Catholic families enrolled and their children encountered an extremely supportive learning environment.
Parent Donna Harrison said parents would have mobilised efforts earlier to boost enrolments if they knew it was facing an existential crisis.
“We didn’t know how dire it was,” she said.
She said false rumours swirling in the community – that it was a highly religious Opus Dei school while others believed it was recruiting students for priesthood – had not helped the school’s brand.
“No one knew about the school, anyone who did know about it, thought it was Opus Dei,” she said.
A source close to the school said the “core issue” was its location. “There are a lot of new schools opening up in Sydney but they are all out west. It is not easy to access [news schools] in Daceyville,” he said.
Principal Ian Mejia said a number of factors including public transport connections, affected the school.
“It is a lovely school,” he said. “I think the parents are really sad it’s come to an end.”
He said the school’s size was a benefit because it could bring parents into the education process.
“We had a huge jump in our NAPLAN results. [As] a small school, we could talk to parents, we were on top of things.
“We knew each student really well. That goes against these big schools which take this model of bigger is always better. Parents appreciated that individual care for each student.”
He said his focus was his staff and helping students find alternative schools, with existing pupils being offered a spot in the Sydney Catholic Schools community.
A spokesman for Sydney Catholic Schools said it were working with Hartford College students and families following the college’s decision.
“We are committed to supporting current Hartford students and their families as they explore schooling options for 2027,” he said.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
