![Rissalah College in Lakemba where Sharrouf's children went to school Rissalah College in Lakemba where Sharrouf's children went to school](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/47bead92-2818-4842-931b-4a471e547ee4.jpg/r0_0_729_410_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
![Karen Nettleton, Khaled Sharrouf's mother in law. Karen Nettleton, Khaled Sharrouf's mother in law.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-feed-data/874fe1b3-991f-4401-86b8-b3786c1a6039.jpg/r0_0_729_410_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The school that once taught the children of terrorist Khaled Sharrouf has ruled out taking them back if they return to Australia.
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Two of Sharrouf's eldest boys attended Rissalah College in Sydney's west between 2011 and 2013 but their attendance was plagued by unpaid fees and the community's fear of their father.
Sharrouf gained notoriety after posting photos of his children with severed heads and holding AK-47s in front of of Islamic State flags across Syria. It is understood that his wife, Tara Nettleton, is trying to return to Sydney with the couple's five children because of poor living conditions inside Islamic State.
Parents at the school in Lakemba have described Sharrouf as "ruthless."
"You could tell he was ruthless, he had it in his eyes, many people were scared of him," said a parent of a child in year five who asked not to be named.
The school's former principal gave Sharrouf several opportunities to pay about $10,000 in school fees before "the family suddenly disappeared", a former board member said.
After the children were whisked away from the school in 2013 the next time members of the school community saw Sharrouf's seven-year-old son he was struggling to hold up a decapitated head in Syria.
Rissalah's principal, Afif Khalil, said the decision over their future education was best left to the relevant educational authorities.
"Given the horrifying and barbaric experiences they have been exposed to, I don't believe Rissalah College has the means to address their potential needs," he said.
Staff at the school were divided. "We would be crazy to have them back", said one teacher. Another said that rejecting them from the school "would be subjecting the kids to more stress for something that is not their fault".
Parents welcomed the principal's decision. "The wellbeing of other children is the most important thing," said parent Ahmed Ali. "They have been to warzones and seen things no one should ever see, that will have a huge effect on all of them."
Teachers have described the seven-year-old as a "normal kid," and "no-one really had a problem with the wife, but she was different because she was Anglo-Australian".
It is not known which school his two teenage daughters attended, one of whom, a 14-year-old, was recently married to Sharrouf's accomplice Mohammed Elomar, while his youngest son would have been too young to attend school in Australia.
On Wednesday Fairfax Media reported that Sharrouf's three young boys and two teenage daughters are viewed by some senior security sources as victims of their father's extremism.
In January the ABC reported that Sharrouf's wife and kids often talked of home. Yazidi women captured by the group claimed that the children had threatened them with knives.
"We were required to do anything those children asked," one of the women said.
Sydney community leaders said that if the children return they will have to re-habilitated.
"They are so young they are like puppets, they don't know anything, they have been fed all of this information by their parents and they believe it," said Mohamad al-Hamwi, from the Australian Syrian Association. "Of course the community must help them to change their beliefs, we will have seminars to help them rehabilitate, and to show other parents and children what the cost is of going into overseas conflicts."
Watch: Islamic State fighters family wants to return
Should the Australian government allow the children return the responsibility for their welfare and education could fall on the children's grandmother Karen Nettleton and the NSW Department of Education. Ms Nettleton declined to comment when approached in Sydney's south on Wednesday.
As the children are school aged they would be eligible to enrol in their local public school.
A spokesman for the Department of Education said the department undertakes risk assessments to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all students and staff. He said that any students with wellbeing issues will have access to school welfare and counselling services.