Linden Park Primary School turning new students away

A HIGHLY sought-after public primary school in Adelaide’s east has closed its books — it’s no longer accepting new students in any year but Reception.

A HIGHLY sought-after public primary school in Adelaide’s east has closed its books — it’s no longer accepting new students in any year but Reception.

Linden Park Primary School will not accept any new students in years other than Reception because it is struggling with over-enrolments.

The Education Department this month decided to close the books at the Hay Rd school, one of the state’s top public primary schools due to its academic results.

New families moving into the school’s zoned area will be directed to other nearby schools.

The department’s education director for eastern suburbs school partnerships, Greg Petherick, said the freeze on enrolments for all but new Reception students would remain until numbers at Linden Park were reduced to a more acceptable level.

“Children moving into the area will be accommodated into one of the several nearby public primary schools which have the capacity to take new enrolments,” Mr Petherick said.

Student numbers at Linden Park Primary have grown by 96 per cent in the past five years.

Governing council chair Kathy Laycock said over the past few years, the school had received more than 150 enrolments annually and about 10 inquiries a week.

“Our school has an excellent reputation and this has driven enrolment, but the rate of growth was just not sustainable,” Ms Laycock said.

Principal Vicki Porter said the school was doing its best to support families and assist them to find them places at nearby schools.

“We have assisted about 30 families to find a position at other schools,” Ms Porter said.

She said the enrolment freeze brought a “a sense of relief”.

The school has 1035 students, well over capacity.

A study last year showed even with the addition of four new transportable classrooms, to be installed in Term 3, the school would have capacity for 950 students.

To cope with the boom, two classes are being taught in the library, with others in former art and computer rooms and one in a “shared learning area” other students need to pass through to reach their classes.

As the Eastern Courier Messenger reported last year, skilled migrants moving into the Linden Park zone were partly behind a surge in enrolments.

Ms Porter said at the time that Chinese and Indian skilled migrants were attracted by the school’s academic results and its International Baccalaureate program.

More than half the school’s population was from a non-English speaking background.

Linden Park had the best NAPLAN results for a public primary school in metropolitan Adelaide in 2013.

Public schools closest to Linden Park are Rose Park, Burnside, Marryatville, Norwood and Glen Osmond primary schools.