As more high school students continue to drop out following the pandemic, one local school is looking to close the gap with an alternative education setting.
When Ermington resident Deborah Riley first realised her son Josh wasn’t enjoying mainstream school, she knew she had to find a solution.
“The school he was at prior wasn’t the right fit and it wasn’t an environment he felt safe in,” she told Parra News.
“He went from a small primary school to a large high school and that was overwhelming to begin with. It just became a bit too much for him, so we were looking for anything.”
School became even more difficult for Josh when students were expected to return to in-class studies following the lockdowns.
That’s when she came across Gateway Community High in Carlingford.
An independent school, Gateway focuses on motivating students who feel they have not been supported at other schools through its flexible learning environment and small classes.
For Deborah, it was a no-brainer and she sent Josh to Gateway in Carlingford when it first opened in 2021.
She said it was the best decision they made for Josh.
“He felt safe to go there and he really liked the teachers that he had,” she said.
“Because it was a smaller setting it wasn’t as overwhelming, they had a zero tolerance policy on the things that worried him at the previous school… it was easier to see if there were issues straight away.”
After years of disruption following the pandemic, Josh isn’t the only student to struggle with feeling comfortable in school.
According to the latest research by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the full-time apparent retention rate decreased by 2.6 per cent in 2022 for students in year seven to year 12.
However, Independent Schools like Gateway have seen a surge in enrolments in NSW over the past couple of years, with an increase of 3.5 per cent in 2021.
For Deborah, seeing her son completely transform in his new school environment made the big decision to switch to an independent school worth it.
“The difference between [Josh] coming home and not wanting to go [to school] in that last term versus being happy to get up and go [to Gateway] was great,” she said.
“Josh became a happy child again, he was keen to go to school and found a love of learning and life again. It was a relief for us to see our son smiling.”
Josh has since graduated Year 10 and is on track to finish his HSC, something Deborah said wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t make the move to Gateway.
“For those kids that just don’t fit into that mainstream [school environment]… they fall through the cracks,” she said.
“Those kids just need something smaller and more intimate that works for them.”
Gateway will have its upcoming open day on April 15 from10am and 11am. To find out more go to http://www.gatewaycommunityhigh.nsw.edu.au.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.