The NSW Department of Education has released the highly anticipated new school intake areas for the Northern Beaches as part of Labor’s 2023 election promise for all students in NSW to have guaranteed access to a co-educational public high school by 2027.
This comes as some cohorts in the community object not only to the transition of Freshwater Senior Campus into a comprehensive Year 7 to Year 12 high school but also where the lines are drawn for the intake areas and which schools are placed on which side of the boundary (more on this further down). The news has, however, been received more positively by the Curl Curl North parent community as the public school’s catchment area now matches Freshwater High’s.
The new intake areas
According to the Department’s updated website: “To enable the operational changes and to respond to some feedback from the consultation, local intake areas will be adjusted for the NBSC campuses, The Forest High School and several primary schools. The updates provide guaranteed access to a coeducational high school. They also provide improved alignment between primary schools and high schools, enabling more students to move from primary school to high school with their peers.”
The biggest change is the new Forest High and Freshwater Campus intake areas overlapping with Balgowlah Boys and Mackellar Girls.
For parents who previously fell in the Balgowlah Boys or Mackellar Girls intake area but don’t want to send their child to a single-sex high school, they are eligible to either send their child to the new Forest High (suburbs in this catchment include: Seaforth, North Balgowlah, Balgowlah, Balgowlah Heights, Allambie Heights, Manly Vale, and parts of Fairlight) or the Freshwater Campus (which extends from Manly up to the border between North Curl Curl and Dee Why and encompasses North Curl Curl, Curl Curl, Freshwater, Queenscliff, Manly and parts of Fairlight and North Manly).
You can take a closer look to see where your house falls on the new colour coded map here with the Department promising the new 2026 new local intake areas will be uploaded to School Finder in January 2025.
In addition, local intake areas will be adjusted for the following schools to “provide improved alignment between primary schools and high schools, enabling more students to move from primary school to high school with their peers.”
- Brookvale Public School
- Harbord Public School
- Manly Vale Public School
- Manly Village Public School
- Manly West Public School
- Narraweena Public School
- NBSC Cromer Campus
- NBSC Freshwater Campus
- NBSC Balgowlah Boys Campus
- NBSC Mackellar Girls Campus
- The Forest High School
There will also be some minor changes to intake areas for the following schools to “correct instances where a non-residential area or a small group of homes is not aligned with the majority of its street or neighbourhood to a particular school”.
- Balgowlah Heights Public School
- Balgowlah North Public School
- Beacon Hill Public School
- Curl Curl North Public School
- Davidson High School
- Frenchs Forest Public School
- Narrabeen Sports High School
- Wakehurst Public School
The Department said parents are still able to apply as a non-local enrolment to an out of intake area school and their application will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Future changes to intakes areas may still happen as the Department monitors the trends resulting from the new areas.
Concerns over inequitable boundaries
A Brookvale Public School P&C Association representative reached out to Manly Observer to express the school community’s disappointment in Brookvale students being excluded from the Freshwater Campus intake area despite being 1.5km down the road and being the number one preference for families first-choice in high school.
“This choice ignores the practical benefits of proximity, including shorter commutes, reduced transportation emissions, and easier family logistics,” they told us.
“We feel that this approach deepens existing class-based inequalities in the Northern Beaches public school system. Areas like Brookvale and nearby Dee Why are home to a far more diverse mix of ethnic, racial, and socio-economic backgrounds compared to wealthier neighbourhoods like Curl Curl, Manly, and Balgowlah. Assigning high school access primarily along these lines – whether intentional or not – threatens to cluster educational opportunities within more affluent enclaves, while leaving more diverse communities at a disadvantage. The principle of proximity should be a key consideration, but so should the principle of diversity.”
Freshwater Campus school community “blindsided”
Earlier this month, the Department announced Northern Beaches Secondary College (NBSC) Freshwater Senior Campus will expand from a Year 11 to 12 seniors-only campus to a full Year 7 to 12 high school campus under major changes to Northern Beaches co-educational schooling.
“The school community of Freshwater Senior Campus has been blindsided by the proposal,” Louise Hislop, on behalf of Freshwater Senior Campus Parent Consultation Group, told Manly Observer.
“This comes at a time when Freshwater Senior College has once again proven to be one of the most successful comprehensive public schools in the state with over 250 students achieving a Band 6 or equivalent across the 33 subjects taught at the school, with two students achieving All Rounder status with a Band 6 in every one of their chosen subjects. Four students have been recognised as Top Achievers. These results reflect the commitment to outstanding practice and student achievement the school is known for.”
Hislop added that little information has been provided to the school community on how the school will physically be able to accommodate Year 7 and Year 9 enrolments in 12 months and said parents are claiming the consultation process as “flawed”.
“There are basic questions about where the classrooms will be placed and where the teachers will come from given the teacher shortage,” she said.
The Freshwater Senior Campus Parent Consultation Group (PCG) hold concerns the proposed changes would create an underfunded and under-resourced public school on the Northern Beaches.
“We could lose our exceptional teachers and compromise the quality of education that has been a hallmark of this campus. We deserve better than to have this decision thrust upon us in the last two weeks of the school year, with no information or communication from the Department or Minister,” the statements read.
According to Hislop, Member for Wakehurst, Michael Regan, and Member for Manly, James Griffin have co-signed a letter to Education Minister, Prue Carr, asking for assurance of funding to ensure a smooth transition and appropriate infrastructure.
You can read our earlier coverage:
Northern Beaches single sex schools ‘saved’ as Freshwater Seniors gets major shake up
Government floats major changes to Northern Beaches high schools
