Major changes at Adelaide High School: Expansion will boost capacity to 1800 students but enrolment zone will shrink

A decision to shrink the enrolment zone for Adelaide’s two public CBD high schools has sparked a political row over parents’ rights to use real estate to buy their way into the school of their choice. SEE THE NEW ZONE

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A decision to shrink the enrolment zone for Adelaide’s two public CBD high schools has sparked a political row over parents’ rights to use real estate to buy their way into the school of their choice.

The State Government will remove several suburbs from the shared zone, affecting hundreds of families.

It will also spend $18 million expanding Adelaide High School’s capacity by 350 students to cope with the addition of Year 7 students and other enrolment pressures.

The Advertiser can reveal a further $22 million will be invested in nine more schools, on top of their current capital works allocations, so they can both take on Year 7s and continue with projects such as performing arts centres.

Seaview High will receive $4 million and the others, mostly metropolitan schools, either $2 million or $3 million.

Adelaide High’s shared zone with Adelaide Botanic High will be reduced on the southwestern side next year.

Underdale High, Plympton International College and Springbank Secondary will regain the territory Labor gave to the city schools.

The Government says even without the looming shift of Year 7s from primary to high schools, enrolments would have outgrown the capacity of the two city schools.

But the Opposition claims the rezoning is the result of the Government’s failure to properly plan and fund the Year 7 move, and will dud families who bought homes in suburbs to get their kids into a city school.

Adelaide High School on West Terrace.

Those suburbs are all or parts of Hilton, Torrensville, Mile End, Kurralta Park, Glandore, Richmond, Marleston, Black Forest and Clarence Park.

Education Minister John Gardner said affected families would be closer to the schools they are going to be zoned to than they were to Adelaide High.

He said “detailed demographic analysis” showed the shared zone Labor created put “too many demands on capacity at our CBD high schools”, while other good, nearby schools had room for more students.

Sam Reid & Jessica de Gouw on set at Adelaide High School, for a new TV series called The Hunting that deals with fallout from teens posting nude photos online. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

The rezoning and investment in Adelaide High meant special entry programs for students from outside the zone could continue at both city schools, he said.

Only new enrolments will be affected by the change. Siblings of children from the rezoned suburbs who are already at Adelaide High will gain places there.

Mr Gardner said sibling rights would be extended beyond 2023.

“In 2023, students in Year 8 now will be finishing high school so the purpose of the decision was that those families who’ve already had a child start at Adelaide High or Adelaide Botanic High, their younger siblings can go to the same school so the family doesn’t have the disruption,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide.

“If you have a student who is in Year 8 this year, and the younger sibling is going to be starting high school while that student is still at school, we’re extending sibling right for those siblings.”

Opposition education spokeswoman Susan Close said the rezoning would devalue homes no longer zoned to the city schools. She said other schools at capacity would also be at risk of rezonings because of the shift of Year 7s by 2022, but the Government expressly ruled that out.

Australian Education Union state president Howard Spreadbury said Underdale High, Plympton International College and Springbank Secondary would need extra resources to cope with more students.

Mr Gardner said $20 million was being spent on Underdale High and $10 million on Springbank Secondary.