News
2 December, 2025
Decision ‘in best interests of students’: Department
The NSW Department of Education has responded to questions about the closure of Penrose Public School with boasts about what the NSW Government is doing elsewhere.
The NSW Department of Education has responded to questions about the closure of Penrose Public School with boasts about what the NSW Government is doing elsewhere.
As already reported by The Southern Wire, Penrose Public School will head into recess at the end of the year with students forced to go elsewhere.
Many parents are considering home-schooling because there are no public transport options.
A NSW Department of Education spokesperson said a school only moved into recess “after extensive consultation with parents, carers, stakeholders and the local community”.
Parents have said the engagement process was flawed from the start.
“A sustained decline in enrolments can lead to consultation regarding a school’s future educational provision and consideration of the best educational interests of students including access to curriculum offerings is key to this decision making,” the spokesperson told The Southern Wire.
According to the Department of Education, decisions on the operation of a school are made on a case-by-case basis and can depend on several factors in addition to absolute numbers, such as the ages of the students involved and how close other schools are.
It refused to be drawn on exactly how many students would need to be enrolled at the school for it to remain open.
The spokesperson said students would start transitioning to other schools this term including Wingello and Bundanoon with the support of the Department.
However there are no bus services to those schools forcing some Penrose parents to consider home schooling.
The spokesperson said any school placed into recess was reviewed every two years and should future local demand rise “substantially”, a school placed into recess could be made operational again.
Rather than providing more information on its decision to place Penrose Public School into recess, the Department was keen to boast about what it was doing elsewhere.
The spokesperson said the NSW Government was investing $2.1 billion into new and upgraded schools in regional NSW including new primary schools and public preschools at West Dapto, Calderwood and Worrigee, a new high school in Flinders and upgrades to Bowral High School, Bomaderry High School, Dapto High School and Nowra East Public School.
Another 10 public preschools would be delivered in the Southern Highlands and Illawarra region, as part of the NSW Government’s commitment to deliver 100 new public preschools across the state.
According to the Department’s policy ‘Educational provision – change in future school operations procedure’ policy, the decision to place a school into recess does not have to be made by the Minister but can be made by “an appropriate senior department executive”.
In a 25-page submission to the Department of Education, parents said the Department had failed to follow its owns protocols for placing a school into recess and there had been no ‘meaningful’ consultation with parents or the broader community.
It described the school as a “cornerstone” of the community and said its closure would not only jeopardise the education of current and future students but would also undermine community resilience in an area still recovering from the Black Summer bushfires.
It said a dip in enrolment numbers at the school was the result of short-term decision made by a few families and did not reflect a long-term decline.
Community-collected data showed confirmed and potential enrolments increasing for 2026 and beyond supported by local growth.
The submission said the Department had failed to provide the community with information when requested and accused it of failing to provide procedural fairness.
Read More: Penrose, Southern Highlands, Southern Tablelands