In the past week, principal Ralph David has fielded calls from a dozen parents wanting to take a tour of the public high school he has headed for more than six years.
“I’m finding it hard to keep up with the interest, which is a first,” he says. For more than a decade his school – JJ Cahill Memorial High in Sydney’s south – has faced countless battles. Enrolments – hovering about 300 – are at a standstill. Families have moved out of the catchment to more affordable parts of Sydney, while schools with “shiny, brand-new buildings” have opened in neighbouring areas.
Year 12 students at JJ Cahill Memorial High School with principal Ralph David and head of the P&C Daniel Girling-Butcher. The school has recently set up a formal P&C, its first in 15 years.Credit: Janie Barrett
“We’ve had major challenges,” says David, who started as principal at the Mascot school in 2017 when enrolments were at 319 – well below its capacity of 1100. It’s among a number of public high schools in the city’s inner-south and east that are well below capacity and struggling to bolster numbers as families move away, apply for out-of-area schools or choose Catholic or independent options.
“The numbers haven’t really shifted, we’ve just moved up and down a bit since then. Catholic schools in the area have become co-ed, there’s private school competition ... other government schools have opened shiny new buildings – that’s been very appealing to parents.”
David is on a mission to turn things around. For the first time in 15 years there is an incorporated parents and citizens association. NAPLAN results have improved, especially year 9 scores. The school has a yoga room, new gym and a sustainable garden. “It’s a completely different school to when I started,” he says.
“Often parents don’t see the nuance of a school if they don’t see inside. Parents will pass by and say, ‘oh, that’s just that old school’, or they will hear [negative] perceptions of what it’s like. They don’t know what we’ve got to offer.”
Part of the battle to lift numbers, David says, is the school’s location, bordering the airport. House prices meant families moved west, he says. “There can be a perception among some parents that private schools are preferable. That thinking is hard to fight against. I would put my teachers up against any teachers anywhere, they are phenomenal,” he says.
The comprehensive school – named after former NSW premier John Joseph Cahill – opened in 1961 after lobbying by locals and the council. Its catchment spans Mascot, Eastlakes and Beaconsfield and by the mid-1990s the school had more than 650 students. Enrolments slowly fell in the following years, and in 2022 there were just under 300 students.
“When a school tips below 500 students it’s very hard to bring it back up,” says David, previously a deputy at Epping Boys. “Perception is the hardest thing to crack.”
Nearby schools have faced similar problems. At Matraville Sports High enrolments are up, but the school has the capacity to double its size. Randwick Boys is about 60 per cent full. Georges River College Hurstville Boys Campus has slumped to about 25 per cent capacity. At South Sydney High in Maroubra enrolments have been rising to hit 70 per cent capacity.
Since 2017, David says the focus at JJ Cahill – where 40 per cent of students come from the lowest quarter of socio-educational advantage – has been on creating a “positive culture, values and working with families beyond the school gates”. A social worker started, and the school delivered food hampers to parents during months of disrupted learning. Explicit teaching of expectations around behaviour has been key, he says.
Students at JJ Cahill High School in Mascot: Louis Girling-Butcher, Isabella Gan, Valeriya Tkatchenko, and Jack Mathews with Principal Ralph David, centre, and Daniel-Girling Butcher, the new P&C head.Credit: Janie Barrett
Daniel Girling-Butcher, who has been appointed president of the school’s first formal P&C since 2008, won a WestConnex grant he will use to re-landscape the grounds with endangered eastern suburbs banksia scrub from IndigiGrow, an Aboriginal-owned native plant nursery based at La Perouse Public School.
“The P&C thought we could make a real difference, and lift the profile of the school, by improving the school’s grounds and environment,” he says.
Craig Petersen, president of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council, said it was vital the NSW Education Department provided continuing additional support for underutilised schools.
Four years ago the department cracked down on out-of-area school enrolments to stop over-enrolments in popular schools, while others were left half empty. “It was to try and get people to send their children to the local school. But once a pattern of enrolment has started, and perceptions entrenched, it’s hard to change,” Petersen says.
While David is positive about JJ Cahill, he recognises “there is still a lot of work to be done. We are hoping to extend the library one day, and we’ve put huge work into literacy, especially. We are really seeing the results of that.”
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