Before and after: Aerial photos reveal explosive growth of Adelaide schools

Stunning aerial photos have revealed the huge growth of some of Adelaide’s most popular schools as specialist classrooms and sport centres sprout on campus. See if your school is on the list.

Change is inevitable and the saying rings particularly true for 20 of Adelaide’s top schools.

The South Australian public education system this year welcomed year 7 into high school, with over $1.1bn spent to ready schools across the state.

Population growth has added extra pressure on both private and public schools, pushing student numbers to capacity.

The below images, courtesy of Nearmap, show just how much popular Adelaide schools have changed over the past decade.

If you’re viewing this story on desktop, click and drag the slider tool from left to right to see how an area has changed since 2012. On mobile, click the picture left and right of the line to move the slider.

In January 2019, Adelaide’s newest and most spectacular high school opened its doors to 350 students.

Three years on, the school has grown to 1250 students, spread across year 7 right through to year 12 – and the growth won’t stop here.

The city centre’s highly regarded Adelaide Botanic High School, which was built in and around a former Uni SA science building, will expand to take in another 700 students under a $98m building project, announced in January.

The investment aims to satisfy the surging demand for school placements in the inner suburbs.

The expansion includes construction of a multistorey building on the southern side of the existing school on Frome Rd.

Due to be ready by the start of 2024 it will include modern, flexible learning spaces and specialist facilities.

If you think Glenunga International High has undergone a major transformation, you’re right.

The eastern suburbs school has undergone a $32m redevelopment, which includes a new three-storey science and technology building.

It comes with serviced learning areas, breakout areas and spaces for staff to prepare lessons.

A new double-court gym with a two-storey annex accommodating health and physical education spaces, changerooms, serviced learning areas and amenities replaced six former playing courts.

The record investment lifted the school’s enrolment capacity, including welcoming year 7 into high school.

The former stomping ground of Adelaide-born singing sensation Guy Sebastian has not been spared from change.

Days before the state election, King’s Baptist Grammar opened a new middle school building at its Wynn Vale campus.

The $3.675m project was partly funded by the federal government and included new general learning areas, specialist spaces, teacher offices and a middle school administration.

The building also accommodates extra classes for years 6 and 7 and matches standards that the junior school enjoys such as breakout spaces and shared learning areas.

Expansion galore has been experienced by this western suburbs Catholic college, which has not only spent $4m to upgrade its junior campus but a further $10m to redevelop its senior school.

Over the past five years, St Michael’s College has embarked on the largest primary campus redevelopment in its 63-year history with a major upgrade of its Beverley site.

The two developments, first announced in 2017, came in the wake of a surge of enrolments at the school, which at the time was preparing to accept year 7 students in its secondary school from 2019.

The Beverly development included new classrooms, six kitchens for home economics, an out-of-school-hours building and a carpark.

A new two-storey building was built at St Michael’s College’s Henley Beach secondary campus, complete with a new lecture theatre, cafe, 13 new classrooms, a hospitality space, staff areas and student services.

They say proof is in the pudding but in the case of Norwood International, proof of the school’s massive expansion is in the aerial images.

The Magill-based campus has undergone a massive $54.938m upgrade to consolidate its middle and senior schools.

Key features of the redevelopment include a new three-storey middle-school building with a rooftop play space, a new two-storey building for a technical/specialist precinct, a new “ergo” shed for general physical education and to support the rowing program, and new sports courts.

Existing amenities were also refurbished

If change is as good as a holiday, then students at Unley High are enjoying an extra long vacation.

The school’s $32.5m expansion of its Netherby campus catered for year 7s moving into high school and it now has a student capacity of 1700, up from 1250.

The expansion entailed a new three-storey building for flexible learning, including home economics, technology, art, science and new classroom spaces.

Unley Square, a new outdoor landscaped courtyard, meanwhile offers a covered outdoor learning area for formal and informal learning.

There’s also a new front of school administration space while existing facilities have been refurbished.

Established in 1908, Adelaide High School was the first public high school in the Australian Commonwealth.

Over the years, the school has experienced a number of upgrades but none more than in the past decade.

The school recently completed a $23m expansion to help transition year 7 into high school.

Key features included a new “Hive” building to provide general learning areas, flexible specialist learning areas, teacher preparation, storage, amenities, canteen cafe and outdoor learning areas.

There’s also a new infill to an existing building to provide flexible specialist learning areas and an existing student courtyard has been upgraded to include outdoor seating.

The school now caters for more than 1500 students.

Dating back to 1952, Brighton Secondary School’s original campus building may be rich in history, but its recently expansion has people talking.

The school finished almost $14m worth of capital works projects, including a new two-storey middle-school building to provide contemporary learning spaces.

This includes specialised science learning areas, flexible common areas, amenities and teacher preparation areas

The school’s beach volleyball courts were also relocated.

With Mount Barker’s population to expand to almost 60,000 residents by 2036, providing adequate education continues to be a key priority for the Hills town.

This includes a $11m investment into Mount Barker Primary School.

Major expansion works at the Dumas St campus includes a new two-storey building comprising general learning areas and serviced learning areas for STEM.

The school now has a new disability unit comprising three general learning areas and one serviced learning area on the ground floor for assisted and special-needs learning.

New administration facilities were included on the first floor.

Meanwhile, a new landscaped courtyard offers opportunities for open play.

Steeped in history, Paralowie School ranks as one of Adelaide’s most popular education establishments in the northern suburbs and may even become more popular after its recent $12m upgrade.

The school now includes a dedicated junior primary precinct, complete with a new junior primary building that features flexible general learning spaces.

There’s also a new performing arts centre, a new health and wellbeing centre, and new learning areas.

Existing facilities were refurbished, including technical studies and a hall to incorporate greater flexibility in their use.

Roma Mitchell Secondary College was established in 2011 to combine four schools into one, namely Ross Smith Secondary, Enfield High, Gepps Cross Girls High and Gepps Cross Senior.

While the college is still relatively new, growth has been inevitable as has the need for improved facilities.

It’s resulted in a $24.6m upgrade, including the construction of a new two-storey building to provide flexible contemporary areas for general learning, new science laboratories and staff areas.

A second, single-storey building on the site also provides additional classrooms, an art laboratory and new food technology spaces.

You just have to take on look at Underdale High to realise a lot can be achieved for $20m.

The school’s expanded campus now includes a new performing arts building, combining music and drama areas, a performance space for 150 people with partially retractable seating, as well as a canteen and classrooms.

A new two-storey administrative building, adjacent to student services, has also been constructed, while existing classroom have been refurbished.

A new extension to the existing gymnasium, to house specialist performance equipment, has also been funded, as has resurfacing works of the sports courts.

Rapidly expanding Adelaide suburbs have forced families to look elsewhere for housing and the Gawler and Barossa regions have reaped the benefits.

This includes Gawler and District College, which received $10m to fund much-needed upgrades.

The school now has a new special education building including withdrawal spaces for students, as well as teacher preparation areas.

Two other buildings now incorporate new dance areas, a performance stage, a physical education office, and a ‘parent portal’ building with administration offices and a reception/lobby area.

Plans are also underway for a new Art and Design Building at Saint Ignatius’ Senior School campus in Athelstone.

Concept plans are still in the early drawing stages, however, more details are expected to be released in the coming months.

The expansion will mark an important milestone for the College, which was first established by the Jesuit Fathers in 1951.

Moving year 7s into high school also benefited a popular northern-suburbs school.

Salisbury High unveiled its $10m makeover, which featured the construction of a new food technology and visual arts building and included specialist and general learning areas.

An existing building was refurbished to provide a multipurpose maker space.

The school was home to 893 enrolled students in term three last year.

All the world is a stage for students at Seaview High who have welcomed a $16.2m expansion at their Seacombe Rd campus.

Students can now make use of a new two-storey multipurpose creative-design building, which incorporates new learning areas for a variety of creative subjects including art, design, engineering/technology studies, home economics and other general learning areas.

A new single-storey performing arts facility has also been constructed, making room for associated performance spaces, including stage, rehearsal workshops, amenities and outdoor spaces.

The project also included refurbishment of an existing building to provide contemporary learning areas to deliver STEM subjects.

Significant growth at Golden Grove High will be eased by a $15.5m upgrade to help meet the school’s enrolment demands in the northeastern suburbs.

Key features of the upgrade include a new two-storey learning centre, new two-storey performing arts and year 12 study centre, a large increase in landscaped courtyards and outdoor learning areas, and additional carparking.

Importantly, this upgrade involved more than 300 local students in the project’s design and construction, providing an invaluable learning experience for students interested in a career in building and construction.

Aerial images show little improvement to the Immanuel College campus over the past decade – but that’s about to change.

The school has unveiled plans for a $13.5m, two-storey Discovery Precinct due to open by term one of 2023.

The “world-class” building will provide learning, leadership and enterprise facilities for senior school students – with a particular focus on Year 10 – through state-of-the-art technologies and flexible learning spaces.

It will also include a bridge to the existing senior school building, the award-winning Margaret Ames Centre, providing students, teachers and industry mentors a “real-life” setting to learn and collaborate.

Regarded as one of Adelaide’s top primary schools, St Andrew’s can trace its origin back to 1850 when it was established to accommodate local children living in the 40 houses that made up Walkerville.

It goes without saying that the school would have experienced a number of changes during the past 172 years, including classrooms and building.

However, changes captured via the aerial images above are limited, perhaps because of the school’s small campus footprint, which lends itself to refurbishments rather than expansions.

A $12m overhaul of Henley High has also been completed with the school now home to a new building to provide additional contemporary general learning spaces, science, health, arts and home economics classrooms, as well as teacher preparation and storage areas.

There’s also a new administration facility adjoining the main two-storey building, while feature screening now acts as the gateway to the school.