New school by 2026

It will be called the Riverina Christian College.

Melos Education executive principal Phillip Nash said while formal consultation on the project is yet to be conducted, he said it is unlikely the school will offer primary school classes.

He said this is based on discussions with community members to date, and the number of primary options already available to Deniliquin and district.

Mr Nash said the school is also expected to begin with only a limited intake of students in certain grades, and grow in subsequent years.

“At this stage we expect to start with a Year 7 class, or Year 7 and 8 depending on demand, and grow through to Year 12 as they progress in their schooling,” Mr Nash said.

“However, if there is enough interest to take Year 11 and 12 students from our first year, we would also consider that.

“We aim to have public consultation on our plans later this year.

“We cannot accept any registrations for the school until we have been approved to open, but we can start taking expressions of interest.

“Once we have our new website launched, there will be a form that people can fill out.

“We will be working on that over the next few months.”

Mr Nash said the Riverina Christian College is expected to take a “future of education” approach in the way it teaches, offering both face-to-face and online lessons.

He said this means the school would not be limited in the subjects it can offer.

“We have already partnered with an online learning platform (with our other schools), with this approach allowing us to offer a broad range of subjects based on the students’ goals.

“This approach also allows us to work around the teacher shortages, because we all know getting teachers to move inland is a challenge.

“We want to think through how we can do things in Deniliquin that would be beneficial to the students.”

While some upgrades will be required at the Deniliquin Christian School site to prepare for the future school, Mr Nash said it could open without the need for significant construction.

“We would be working toward some new buildings, but there are enough facilities there to get started,” he said.

“In saying that, it was predominately angled toward primary teaching so we would need to make a few changes to cater to our needs.

“The subjects people want to access through the school will guide the future curriculum and facilities.”

Melos Education anticipates having a formal application for the school submitted to the New South Wales Education Standards Authority by March 31, 2025.

Decisions on those applications are then usually made by August or September the same year.

While he cannot pre-empt the process, Mr Nash said he is confident the Deniliquin proposal would be approved.

“We’ve been through this process before so we know exactly what steps we need to take, and NESA has already been very supportive of what we’re planning.”

Deniliquin Christian School closed at the end of 2022.

The school’s board made the tough decision because of waning enrolment numbers, which it identified would create “significant financial risk going into 2023”.

The school had 31 students and 10 staff at the time of closure.

The school was catering to primary and secondary students.