3 June 2019

New schools for Gungahlin, demountables elsewhere as classes fill up

| Ian Bushnell
Join the conversation
19

Lyneham High will be one of the first schools to receive the new demountables. Photo: George Tsotsos.

The ACT Government will deploy a fleet of new mobile demountable buildings to house students in overcrowded established schools such as those in the Inner North while it focuses on meeting the growing demand in new Gungahlin suburbs.

As part of tomorrow’s Budget, Education Minister Yvette Berry has announced two new schools in Gungahlin, money for the previously announced expansion of Franklin Early Childhood School, and extra places for Gold Creek School Senior Campus and Gungahlin College.

It also provides for feasibility studies and planning to support detailed mapping of future student demand in residential growth areas in West Belconnen, the Molonglo Valley, south-east Canberra and the Belconnen and Woden town centre areas. The Inner North also gets money for planning work to address capacity within existing schools in the City and Gateway area, which are bursting at the seams.

There will be a new K-Year 6 in Throsby, with capacity for 450 students and up to 132 preschool students, and space to accommodate future student growth. It will be ready to take students for the 2022 school year.

A new high school in Kenny will cater for enrolments from across Gungahlin, and cater for 800 students from Years 7 to 10 with room for temporary expansion to accommodate more places if required. It is planned to open in the 2023 school year.

Franklin Early Childhood School will grow its permanent capacity to 600 students across Kindergarten to Year 6, in addition to the existing early childhood offering, while Gold Creek School Senior Campus will gain 200 extra places by the beginning of the 2022 school year through the use of demountables

There will also be 200 extra places at Gungahlin College, where new specialist science teaching facilities will be built, along with upgrades to accommodate more staff.

The demountables will also help out at Gungahlin College in 2021 but soak up demand elsewhere, with Lyneham High and Hawker Primary to be the first to receive them. Ms Berry said they would help the Directorate respond quickly to increased enrolments across Canberra, delivering a further 350 places.

There are also pressure points in Belconnen, Woden and Weston Creek where several schools are at capacity but the Inner North’s school populations are booming even before the influx of new residents with the development of the Northbourne Corridor, and the situation appears to have slipped under the radar.

The Budget acknowledges this but some say the Inner North growth has caught the Government on the hop and it is trying to manage the situation through manipulating the Priority Enrolment Areas.

An Inner North parent says a baby boom, along with new development, is flowing through to fill schools to bursting point.

The parent says feeder primary schools such as North Ainslie have doubled in size since the current Year 7 cohort started school, partly due to changing demographics and new areas such as New Watson, in effect a suburb in its own right but without infrastructure.

North Ainslie has gone from two classes in each year to four while Majura in Watson has five kindergarten classes.

This has led to classes being held wherever there is free space.
“Campbell Primary holds extension classes in the staff room, North Ainslie had two classes camping in the library for term one, waiting for a demountable to be finished. The rest of the school then had no library or computer room. Whole school assemblies can’t be held as there is no room in the hall for kids and parents,” the parent says.

While there may be a need for a new school in the Inner North, the growing area is running out of sites, with the former Downer Primary school soon to be made into units and the old Watson High site set to be developed.

But the Government rejected claims of overcrowding in the Inner North saying primary schools are currently using less than 80 per cent of their available school capacity in 2019.

A spokesperson said the feasibility studies would be conducted over the next two years and examine a range of options for responding to demand, including changes to priority enrolment areas and/or more active management of enrolment policy, as well as a range of temporary and permanent infrastructure.

The Government was also working to gain a stronger understanding of future development and occupancy trends, including how many families will choose to live in multi-unit developments increase demand for schools over time.

As well as managing ‘out of area’ enrolments more actively at schools in this region for 2020, the government may investigate opportunities for further expansion on existing school sites in the area, in consultation with the community and schools,” the spokesperson said.

Last year the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Association even floated the idea of a vertical or multi-storey school in the Inner North as a possible solution.

Council executive officer Terry Sanders welcomed the new schools in Gungahlin and the strategic planning announcements for other areas.

Mr Sanders said the demountables, which were of a better standard than some of the actual classrooms, were a good short to medium-term solution.

“We’re certainly looking to see what longer-term plans they’ve got for the whole of the inner area,” he said.

 

Join the conversation

19
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Of course most schools are running at 80% occupancy. It’s amazing how numbers can be manipulated when you redefine the definition of space dedicated to education.

“the Inner North’s school populations are booming even before the influx of new residents with the development of the Northbourne Corridor, and the situation appears to have slipped under the radar.”
With all the development already going on it may be time for a new ‘radar’. Or at least a planning minister who understands the concept – of planning.
“some say the Inner North growth has caught the Government on the hop and it is trying to manage the situation through manipulating the Priority Enrolment Areas”
Cooking the books so it can be claimed occupancy being less than 80% of capacity? Surely not!

Amazing that schools fill up when ACT Labor shut over half of them down….

What was the thinking behind building a $72m super school in Kambah and then allowing the development of a retirement village on the old Urambi Primary School site? Was the government expecting these people’s grandkids to enrol at Namadgi?

The changes for Kambah were a huge success! If you consider building the second worst performing school in Canberra a success.

It was also a success if you consider it a good thing that more Kambah kids go to out of suburb schools than any other suburb.

If selling off the old school sites to developers and removing the play grounds, basketball courts and playing fields is good for the local community, then Mr Barr’s decisions have been a raging success.

To answer your question, these outcomes were obviously the thinking behind the changes. Otherwise the ACT government wouldn’t consider the school closures a success.

If ACT Government had invested in better youth services, updated child facilities and improved infrastructure for Kambah they would have encouraged more young families into the Suburb and not closed 3 primary schools and 2 pre schools in Kambah alone.

ACT Labor always get me when they talk about their commitment to Education. They’ve tried to wipe away the history of all their repeated education failures over the last decade and a half.

The ACT Government demographers can’t calculate how many people live within walking distance of a Bus stop, let alone the changing demographics of future schools and enrolment requirements.

They totally stuffed up the previous set of projected school enrolments, so anyone with any faith in their abilities to determine the future is historically misguided. .

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.