Too many kids: Why this local public school in Adelaide’s east won’t take all your children

A PUBLIC school in Adelaide’s east won’t take the older siblings of Reception students who’ve recently moved to the area. The bigger kids will have to find somewhere else to go to school.

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A PUBLIC school in Adelaide’s east won’t take the older siblings of Reception students who’ve recently moved to the area. The bigger kids will have to find somewhere else to go to school.

Linden Park Primary School has revealed it will continue its ban on new Year 1-7 students for at least another year to prevent overcrowding.

Enrolment for 120 Reception students closes today but no new students will be allowed to enter Years 1 to 7 for at least the next 12 months, even if they live in the school’s zone.

It continues an enrolment ban in place since May.

Numbers at the school have shot up from 600 in 2008 to 1015 today on the back of excellent NAPLAN results and a growing number of families with young children in the area, particularly migrants from China and India.

Principal Vicki Porter said the school did not want to restrict enrolments, but it was the only way to reduce numbers over time to the 960 recommended by an Education Department study in 2014.

Ms Porter said the school had to prioritise the “safety and wellbeing” of students over the right for parents to send their children to their local school.

“The Education Department says you have a right to go to your local school and that is what we believe as well,” she said.

“This is a unique position — it’s quite unparalleled.”

The capacity management plan gazetted last week is the second for a public school following first one put in place at Adelaide High.

If more than 120 students apply for Reception places, they will be chosen according to whether they have siblings at the school, the length of time they have lived in the school zone and the distance they live from the school.

Parents will be notified if their children have been accepted by next Friday.

The parents must then prove they live in the area during a pre-enrolment interview.

Suburbs in Linden Park Primary’s zone include St Georges, Glenside, Glenunga, Frewville, Hazelwood Park, Tusmore, Heathpool, Beaumont and Glen Osmond.

No new international students will be enrolled at the school in 2016.

Normally, children living within a school’s zone are guaranteed enrolment in that school.

In June, Bragg MP Vickie Chapman called for an extra public primary school to be built in the area — possibly at Glenside — to cope with extra demand at Linden Park and nearby schools.

But this week Education Minister Susan Close said the Education Department had decided against it after analysing “the capacity of schools and demographic fluctuations within the surrounding area”.

“While there is increased demand for a number of schools, demographic analysis shows that there is capacity to manage demand within the foreseeable future by using the facilities of the six schools that are within 5km of Linden Park Primary,” Dr Close said.

“These schools have capacity to address anticipated demand through a combination of existing resources and providing new classrooms as the need arises.”

Linden Park Primary opened in 1950 and is the newest public primary school in the southeastern area.

It has installed temporary classrooms this year to cope with the increasing enrolments.

Students’ lunchtimes are staggered and one grade has its breaks at the nearby Mariner Oval.