The staff member who started the Save St Mary's petition on Change.org on Monday morning expected about 50 signatures in the first 24 hours, but was "surprised" to see it receive more than 1000 in this timeframe. It had 2887 at the time of publication.

"It's been amazing to see," they said. "There's such strong, positive, emotional attachment to the school. To get more than 2000 people in only two days just shows you how much the community values the school. It's been a really broad and deep response."

The staff member said the petition was intended to encourage the diocese to reconsider its decision to close the campus.

"The hope is that perhaps they could look at it again and take into account that there is widespread community angst about it - and there's certainly not support for it in the school community," they said.

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As previously reported, the diocese engaged external advisors Dr Dan White and Terry O'Brien to conduct an independent review of the school, which comprises the year 11 and 12 St Mary's Campus and the year seven to 10 St Peter's Campus.

The advisors handed down their recommendations last week, which included that "the ideal, long-term configuration of All Saints' College is for it to be situated on a single campus by no later than 2026, utilising the current St Peter's campus site, and supplemented by appropriate land purchases and associated major capital works".

It also recommended St Mary's discontinue its four day week and flexible learning day on Wednesday, which it uses for exams, excursions, planning, one-on-one support and off-campus vocational education and training.

The advisors recommended the school operate from 2023 with one common five-day timetable and meeting schedule across both campuses, with all staff eligible to be allocated classes at any stage level.

Many of the petition signatories are St Mary's current and past students and parents, who wrote about the value of having a senior campus where students are treated like young adults and in support of its flexible learning day.

Some wrote it didn't make sense to close an established and historic school site in one of NSW's fastest growing cities.

The Newcastle Herald reported on October 8 the advisers had sent staff a briefing paper about four options for the long term structure of the college, including moving all students to St Peter's.

The reviewers had also outlined their intention to recommend an end to the flexible learning day and for both campuses to be on the same timetable from 2023.

The staff member said they and their colleagues had been "blind-sided" by the suggestion to move all students away from St Mary's, which had come as a "huge shock".

They said there had been discussions about changing the flexible learning model, but no formal consultation about removing it, or recent opportunities to improve it.

The staff member said parent consultation had concluded before the advisers had raised closing St Mary's and ending the flexible learning model.

"The consultation process essentially was just asking parents 'What do you think are the positives and what do you think are some areas for improvement?" they said.

"There was never the question 'Do you think it's a good idea if we move everyone to St Peter's?'

"The reason I started [the petition] was I felt as if the community didn't get a proper say on it. No-one knew it was on the table and in fact they've been quite sneaky about it, they've just announced it.... and expected people will follow along and be happy about it."

The staff member said they were concerned the review was completed during COVID-19, when the value of the flexible learning day may not have been clear because some activities were not allowed under the restrictions.

They also said there weren't enough details about how the changes would help students.

"They just sort of say vague things like 'moving forward' and 'new era' and a lot of managerial jargon, there's never been any clear explanation about how this is going to benefit students," they said.

They added that there didn't appear to be any moves to transform the years seven to 10 schools St Pius X High at Adamstown and San Clemente High at Mayfield and the year 11 and 12 school St Francis Xavier's College at Hamilton to years seven to 12 schools.

Diocese chief executive Sean Scanlon said the focus of the review was to ensure the school could "continue to provide an outstanding faith-filled learning environment in the Catholic tradition with the best possible learning progression and educational outcomes for students".

"The independent review collated data from various sources over an extended period, including focus group discussions, surveys, individual meetings and written submissions that canvassed the views of teachers, administration and support staff, parents, and students; the wider community was also able to provide email submissions with information publicly available on the All Saints' website," Mr Scanlon said.

"Additionally, the review was also informed by discussions held with IEU representatives, a reference group and diocesan leadership, as well as a review of educational and demographic data, case studies of multi-campus colleges and visits to neighbouring schools."

He said the review superseded expert Dr John DeCourcy's 2015 review on the flexible learning model, which recommended its continuation.

"The world has changed a lot in the past six years, and all the data suggests we are moving in the right direction," Mr Scanlon said.

"Change can be difficult for some, but we are making these plans because we want to ensure the college, and notably, its students, are set up for success both short and long-term."

Mr Scanlon said information sessions about the review's findings were held last week, where diocesan leaders "reinforced that in the future all students and staff would still be able to access the same level of modern education facilities that they have come to enjoy, despite a transition to a single campus".

"Additionally, attendees were assured that All Saints College would still provide a senior school experience for students."

The staff member said St Mary's had opened a hospitality centre, a 600 seat hall, spent $500,000 converting a drama hall to a student learning hub, converted a science block into a flexible learning space and bought a Victoria Street terrace for the school executive's offices, all in the past decade.

"It's not like it's a school where people have been begging for it to be closed and to move on, it's quite the opposite," they said.

"It's had a really good reputation in the community. Being a Dominican school it hasn't had the same dark history of abuse that Marist Brothers schools have had. It's a school that people have really fond memories of."

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