St John’s Regional College prides itself on its inclusive, real world, co-educational environment, where each individual student is valued and encouraged to achieve their best.
St John’s has offered a co-educational learning environment since 1977 when it became the first regional Catholic co-educational College in Australia. It is focused on preparing students for a 21st Century life after school, ready to take their place within and contribute to a community which has equal footing for both males and females.
Programs directed at addressing social and emotional learning help adolescents to improve classroom behaviour, become more engaged in the learning process and to perform better academically.
The educating community, taken as a whole, is thus called to further the objective of a school as a place of complete formation through interpersonal relations. (Congregation for Catholic Education, 1998)
A truly holistic education recognises that both male and female, we are all sacred, created in the image of God. Co-education provides a real life model where personal wholeness and moral maturity is developed through decisions and actions that demonstrate our responsibilities to others.
At St John’s, co-education helps to develop a healthy respect between girls and boys as they work and learn together both in and out of the classroom. Our students set the highest parameters for interpersonal behaviour and stereotypical male/female problems are minimised through both genders sharing classrooms and playgrounds.
Students report that in learning together with the opposite sex, they get exposed to a diversity of ideas that improves their own academic performance because boys and girls often have very different perspectives on events and issues.
For more than 40 years, St John’s co-educational environment has helped to develop well-rounded and confident young adults with the emotional intelligence, maturity and inclusiveness that are critical for 21st Century life after school.
Students educated in a co-educational environment make a much easier transition to the adult arena of university or business. They do not fear barriers and are well able to deal with any which may arise. Co-educational schools are a more natural way for young people to learn and interact as it normalises all form of relationships.
Further reading: Dr Judith Gill – Beyond the Great Divide – Single Sex or Co-Education? (2004)