The Maitland-Newcastle Diocese has announced a restructure of secondary schools. This includes extending two current 7-10 schools to Years 11 and 12 (St Joseph’s Lochinvar and St Mary’s Gateshead) and the construction of two new secondary schools at Chisholm and Medowie.
While the Catholic Schools Office (CSO) has advised they do not anticipate a decrease in the number of staff across the board, changes in structures will potentially result in a significant number of redeployments.
It is expected that St Francis Xavier’s College Hamilton will lose up to 100 students to St Mary’s Gateshead and St Mary’s Maitland may lose in excess of 150 students to St Joseph’s Lochinvar. Other schools will be impacted once the two new schools are established.
The Union is engaging regularly with the CSO on the restructure. A meeting with the Director and Head of Employee Services and the IEU was due to take place last week.