Tricks Geelong parents use to get into desired public schools: 2024 primary and secondary zones mapped

Parents are lying about their addresses, as more Geelong residents take drastic steps to get their kids into sought-after public schools. MAPPED: 2024 Geelong school zones with suburbs

Kristy Brill, pictured with her daughter Charlie-Rose, has revealed the tricks some parents are using to get into sought-after public schools. Picture: Supplied

Parents are lying about their addresses and moving house as Geelong residents take drastic steps to get their kids into sought-after public schools.

Other measures include uprooting families, and even considering a return to homeschooling to avoid the system entirely.

Children going in government education are zoned to designated local schools.

For residents in metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong, Bendigo or Ballarat, this is the nearest government school in a straight line from their permanent address.

Kristy Brill has four school-aged children, including one who attends a specialist school, and three at state primary schools.

She and her family moved from Tasmania to Newtown and were zoned to Fyans Park Primary School.

She said after her children were enrolled, her then-landlord sold the Newtown house, forcing them to move.

Ms Brill said they were only able to secure a rental in Norlane, meaning her daughter Charlie-Rose would be zoned to either Northern Bay or North Geelong for year 7, instead of their desired choice of Belmont High School.

Ms Brill said to avoid this, some parents put other addresses down as their own, and even had bills routed to that address, so they could be zoned into preferred schools.

She said siblings of enrolled students got higher priority, and claimed schools prioritised students from multicultural backgrounds to increase diversity.

Another parent, who wished to remane anonymous, said some parents who own houses in one area rented properties in others, in order to be zoned to particular schools.

She said she would move closer but it was “financially impossible”, and she had considered homeschooling.

The median rental price for Belmont is $460 a week and the median sale price is $703,000 as at the September quarter, 2023, according to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV).

Ms Brill said Belmont High was her preference given its academic program, and that Charlie-Rose’s primary school friends would go there.

“She wouldn’t know one person (at Northern Bay or North Geelong and) the curriculum, everything set up is just not suited for Charlie,” she said.

She said when she contacted the education department, she was told it was up to individual school principals to accept students outside their zone.

“You can’t beat the system,” Ms Brill said.

“You either move to the suburb where the rent is triple the amount, or put your kid in a ‘poorer’ school and affect their education.

“It’s been a nightmare. I’m just stuck.”

Bacchus Marsh mother Melissa, who withheld her surname, said she wanted to relocate to Geelong, but she also hit financial barriers.

“Unfortunately it has become a crisis that directly coincides with the current housing crisis,” she said.

“To be able to enrol in the schools that I feel will fit my children best, I have to find a house in that zone.

“This puts me in a position of paying on average $1m to purchase a house, or $800 a week if I was to rent a house.”

A Department of Education spokesman said every Victorian student had the right to enrol at their local government school.

“A school zone enables parents to identify their local government school but does not restrict a student’s choice to seek enrolment at other government schools outside their zone,” he said.

The department uses a standard methodology for determining school zones which provides consistency and equity across the government school system.

Schools may be able to accept enrolments from outside their zone once all enrolment requests from children within that zone are confirmed, if there is sufficient space.

Ms Brill said all government schools should be created equal, and there should be more of a choice for parents.

Originally published as Tricks Geelong parents use to get into desired public schools: 2024 primary and secondary zones mapped