School to close

A local primary school that has served the community for more than a century has sadly announced that it will ring the bell for the final time, later this year.

St Brendan’s Primary School Dunnstown announced on Monday 19 June that the Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Ltd (DOBCEL) had made the difficult decision to close the school at the end of the 2023 school year, after providing the children of Dunnstown and surrounds with quality education for over 160 years.

In a statement, Executive Director of the school, Tom Sexton, said families would “be supported in their preferred school choice for 2024 with a number of alternative Catholic schools within close proximity”.

“Similarly, the staff of St Brendan’s will be fully supported to understand their options and career opportunities, including redeployment within other Ballarat Catholic school, if desired,” Mr Sexton added.

St Brendan’s Principal Inez French told the Moorabool News last week that the decision had unfortunately come about due to low enrolments.

“The staff and community received the news two weeks ago that St Brendan’s would be closing at the end of the 2023 school year. The children, parents, staff, and wider community are all very sad. St. Brendan’s have served the community of Dunnstown with Catholic education for over 160 years. Many families have had up to four generations go through the school,” Ms French said.

“Our numbers would be eight next year with no children in Prep, Years 1, 2 and 6. The VRQA standards require no less than 11 children. For a non-government school, such low numbers of students is the reason the decision by DOBCEL was made.”

West Moorabool Ward Councillor Tom Sullivan, whose ward includes Dunnstown, said he was “disappointed and saddened” by the news, but hoped the “resilient” community of Dunnstown would celebrate the school’s achievements over many years.

“It’s unfortunate they were unable to keep it open, it’s sad when you see institutions like that, have been part and parcel of Dunnstown through the good and bad times, to be no more. It highlights the inability for these towns to grow over a long period of time, being in a water catchment. A constraint has been put on townships like Dunnstown, Bungaree, and Wallace, the latter two of which we’ve been trying to get sewerage for,” Cr Sullivan said.

“The limitation of growth is the fundamental, root cause of all this, it didn’t happen overnight. It’s been probably 40 years in the making, with the limitation on growth by the water authorities over that journey, trying to stop any sort of development.”

The school plans to hold celebrations towards the end of the year to acknowledge and reflect on the past 160 years at St Brendan’s.

“We will recognise the valued contributions of past and present families and staff,” Ms French said.