St Cecilia’s Balgowlah will close permanently by the end of the school year, Catholic Schools Broken Bay (CSBB) announced to parents at a Tuesday evening meeting, 12 August 2025.
The closure of the primary Catholic school is to make way for a Year 5 and 6 campus for St Paul’s (the high school has recently transitioned from an all-boys Catholic school to a co-educational Catholic school).
CSBB, the overarching education body responsible for overseeing 44 Catholic schools in NSW, says consultations have taken place over the past three years about the future of Catholic education on the Northern Beaches.
However, parents were outraged because they said the decision was sprung on them without warning or consultation at an informal P&F meeting.
A petition to delay the closure until 2027, giving parents a full year to decide where to send their children, has started to rapidly gain signatures. At the time of publication, the number was nearing 400.
CSBB said the calls for the decision to be delayed “will place the educational experience of the children at risk”.
Parents blindsided at P&F meeting
“Over the past few years, CSBB has had meetings about the strategic plan for Broken Bay schools, and a message came out that CSBB was holding a meeting to give an update to the strategic plan,” Chris Raper told Manly Observer. He has two children at the school.
He explained not many parents attended, including himself, until the school WhatsApp groups showed what was happening.
“Someone sent through a slide saying St Cecilia’s is closing, and I headed straight for the school where I found maybe about 40 to 60 parents there, deep in conversation, some in tears.”
Chris explained the audience was told St Cecilia’s families were guaranteed a spot at St Kieran’s, and they had two weeks to fill in the enrolment forms if they wanted to secure their children’s spots.
“It felt like a cold restructure or a merger of businesses, and it seemed very financially focused,” he added.
Chris said that at no point had the closure of St Cecilia’s ever been discussed in any of the meetings or literature he’d received about the future of the Catholic schooling system on the Beaches. However, he suspects it’s been on the cards for years with St Cecilia’s principal being moved to another school last term and the position still to be recruited.
“Telling parents in term 3 gives everyone little options of where to send our kids other than the public system,” Chris explained.
Carolyn Williams, the P&F president, and Kylie Chesson, the P&F secretary, were also blindsided by the announcement.
“The P&F didn’t have any information before the meeting,” Carolyn told us.
“The teachers found out at 5pm, and we found at 5:45pm.”
Kylie explained she felt they’d been deceived.
“I feel we weren’t told the information on purpose, because they knew the outcry would be huge and detrimental,” she said.
“We’ve chosen to send our kids to a Catholic school, which instils Catholic ethos, and at the meeting we were lied to.
“We were told we’d been consulted about this decision, but we weren’t. How can the head of a Catholic school system spread lies? It has demolished any confidence parents have in the Catholic school system because their behaviour and the way they’ve chosen to present this and to only give us two weeks’ notice to decide on our children’s future education is, quite frankly, I find it disgusting.”
Parents we spoke to have outlined their concerns aren’t about sending their children to St Kieran’s but rather about the way the information has been delivered and the lack of care they’ve felt from CSBB.
CSBB’s five-year strategy
In July this year, CSBB revealed its five-year strategy to “redefine Catholic education across the Diocese”.
Of the major initiatives, the one affecting the Northern Beaches is to merge St Cecilia’s, Balgowlah, and St Kieran’s, Manly Vale, as a single primary school community freeing the Balgowlah campus for a Year 5 and 6 Learning Hub as part of a Year 5 to 12 multi-campus St Paul’s Catholic College. St Cecilia’s was chosen over St Kieran’s for the Learning Hub due to its proximity to St Paul’s Manly campus.
A spokesperson for CSBB told Manly Observer that for over three years, CSBB has been conducting consultations and community feedback sessions about the future of Catholic Education in the Southern Beaches including surveys, meetings and community forums with families and staff.
“In May 2025, CSBB invited all families, clergy and staff across the Diocese to participate in feedback sessions about the future of Catholic Schools Broken Bay, and how we can further strengthen the family journey in their school,” they said.
“Sadly, only three from St Cecilia’s registered, and not all attended. Due to the lack of response, an online survey was issued to the parents of the entire cohort of 232. Only seven responses were received from St Cecilia’s.”
CSBB said parents were invited and sent an additional four reminders to attend the briefing on Tuesday, where “it was foreshadowed there were some necessary changes on the horizon”.
At the meeting, they said they highlighted St Keiran’s ability to accommodate St Cecilia’s students along with future growth. They added that the benefits of a larger cohort (effectively doubling the enrolments at St Kieran’s) would provide extended peer networks, broader student leadership roles, expanded co-curricular opportunities, continuity of relationship with staff transitioning with students, consistent class sizes aligned with Diocesan standards and a carefully planned transition program for 2025.
As for St Cecilia’s staff, who we understand were made aware of the closure 45 minutes before parents were, CSBB confirmed all permanent teaching staff would be retained.
Manly Observer has been made aware that staff within the Catholic school system were informed a few years ago, when St Paul’s was marked to go co-ed, of the plan for local Catholic primary schools, however, St Mary’s was originally marked for this.
The students
Students were told of the school closure on Tuesday night by their parents or found out from teachers on Wednesday, with many expressing to Manly Observer they were devastated by the news.
“My daughter went to sleep last night crying, saying that she just wants to be with her friends,” Ellicia Miller told us when we visited the school on Wednesday afternoon.
“She’s only in Year 1, she’s just got to know the school, and she just wants to stay here with her friends.”
Bree, a Year 2 student, told us that when she found out the news, she cried for an hour.
“I love St Cecilia’s,” she said.
“I’m worried about getting separated from my friends. I just really wish the school wasn’t closing.”
While it’s a big change for the younger years, who’ve just found their feet, the older years expressed concerns about missing out on the hard work and perks usually afforded to Year 6 students.
“Next year, when we move, it’s our leadership year,” Eden, a Year 5 student explained.
“We’re worried that we won’t be able to be a school captain or get to be a buddy, because no one will know us, so no one will vote for us to be in those roles.”
Melissa Donnelly, a parent at the school, added that it’s not only the kids losing their community but the parents too.
“I have a lot of friends at the school,” she said.
“We’re a small school, and we pride ourselves on being a great, lovely parent community. We know all the parents in our year, and we know most of the parents at the school.
“We do a lot of things together, and we do a lot to support the school, and support CSBB. The way we’ve been treated is just really unfair and against our Catholic Christian values.”
You can read the full statement from Catholic Schools Broken Bay here.
