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Business View Oceania - October/November 2017
sense, trying to remove students from
that sort of environment,” he adds.
Similarly, the school’s boarding has
attracted students from the southern
isles, students who have traditionally
gone north to Sydney for school. The
school is even home to military kids
from within Canberra, but whose fami-
ly may be posted far away.
“Many go on postings in three year
cycles, and they want their children to
stay in Canberra, and finish their edu-
cation at a quality school.”
To take that diversity a step further,
Downey did confirm that the school
becoming fully coeducational was a
big strategic plan for the school.
“Last year, the school extended the
range of year groups that girls could
join in the junior school, and this year
[2017] we’ve had girls joining us in
year seven and year 11, so we’ve be-
gun the transition into coeducation.
We don’t have the boarding facilities
yet and we’re still in the planning stag-
es, but we intend to have girls board-
ing as well.”
Going viral
Boarding is currently at its full ca-
pacity, and Downey attributes inter-
est in the School’s boarding facilities
to a number of factors; “The school, a
number of years ago did not have the
same strength when it came to board-
ing numbers. In the last three to four
years we’ve really increased that, now
we have a waiting list for boarding
which is a terrific position to be in.”