Overcrowding at Parkside Primary School reaches crisis point with staffroom and library used for classes

MORE than 60 students are being crammed into single rooms, classes are being taught in the staffroom and children are complaining of noise-induced headaches at one of Adelaide’s most popular schools.

The other end of the old library, which has been split into two classrooms..

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SIXTY-PLUS students are being crammed into single rooms, classes are being taught in the staffroom and children are complaining of noise-induced headaches as overcrowding at one of the east’s most popular schools reaches crisis point.

Parkside Primary School has been forced to relocate four classes into the library, music room and even the staffroom, with parents telling The Advertiser it was “traumatic” for children who were not able to concentrate in the packed classrooms and were coming home with headaches.

“The first day we went in all of the parents could not believe it,” the parent, who did not wished to be named, said.

“My child came back and said it was too noisy in there, other kids have complained about headaches and I know some children who said they couldn’t learn because it was too noisy and there was no where to sit.

“If your child had sensory issues it would be pretty traumatic.

“The principal and teachers are doing a fabulous job at a really difficult situation, but we just wonder if it will ever end.”

The school confirmed more than 60 students in two Year 3/4 classes are being taught in the library, while music classes have been moved to the gymnasium so another class can be squeezed into the music room.

The school hasn’t had a proper library for the children to use since the beginning of 2017, yet parents are required to pay a library services fee of $60 per child.

“The purpose of the library is more than just borrowing a book, it is a place of refuge,” another parent said.

“It is just chaotic at the moment and the kids in those classrooms don’t know if they are coming or going.

“Everyone at the school is talking about this as we don’t know what is happening.”

Enrolments at the school have increased from 270 to 409 in the past six years — and despite the overcrowding, the capacity is set at 420 students.

Parkside Principal Suzie Sangster said capping enrolments was an option.

“We have year levels that are full, like our Year 1 and reception classes, but within all our other year levels there is some room,” Mrs Sangster said.

“When our numbers start heading up that way (420 students), we would need to look at a capacity management plan.

“There is a little pain for a lot of gain.”

She said two experienced teachers had been appointed to the Year 3/4 classes to deal with the shared classroom.

She said they still expected the new STEM building to be finished before the start of Term 2 on April 30.

The site of the new STEM building at Parkside this week. It is due to open by April 30.

Last year, more than 50 children were taught in the school’s library until the middle of Term 2, as the school waited on transportable classrooms to be installed. But classes are back in the library again, with the transportable doing little to ease the crush.

Australian Education Union SA Branch president Howard Spreadbury said he hoped the Education Department would investigate building a new public primary school in the east to relieve overcrowding but said the relocation of classrooms had to be “put in place in the short term”.

“Everything has been done to ensure the best possible learning environments for the students,” he said in terms of how teaching staff at Parkside had coped with the crowding issues.

Massada College in Glenside closed in 2011 and was sold for housing in 2016.

Overcrowding in 2016 forced Rose Park and Burnside primary schools to only accept new Reception students, while Linden Park was forced to impose the same restrictions in 2015.

Linden Park Primary was forced to stagger its lunchtime that year to allow students to fit on the school’s oval during breaks.

Principal Deb O’Neill said the cap on enrolments reduced the school’s numbers from 1000 in 2015 to 960 this year.

“It is now a manageable number for us to use the school’s facilities at lunch,” Mrs O’Neill said.

Bragg Liberal MP Vickie Chapman said the party had committed to moving Year 7 students into high schools if elected at the March election.

“It would give us immediate relief as we are talking hundreds of children from each school,” Mrs Chapman said.

She did not commit to building a new school if elected, despite stating several times in the past two years that “we need another school in the area”.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Susan Close said the State Government did not have any plans for a new primary school in the east.

Botanic High taking shape

THE new $100 million city high school is on track to open in time for Term 1 next year.

Education Minister Susan Close said the Frome St school, to be known as Adelaide Botanic High, was “taking shape” after construction began in December 2016.

An artist impression of Adelaide Botanic High.

Constuction work on the new Adelaide Botanic High. Picture: AAP / Matt Loxton

Concrete slabs had been poured up to level four of the six-storey building, while steelwork for the school’s gym and infrastructure for water and power had been installed.

The latest artist impressions for the 1250-student school show a rooftop garden and outdoor kitchen above the gym, in the campus’s northeastern corner.