This north shore school catchment shake-up blindsided parents. Now there’s a delay

A controversial change to the catchment zone of one of Sydney’s top-performing comprehensive schools, Killara High, has been delayed after the Department of Education altered zoning maps on the School Finder website by Tuesday morning.

The rezoning, which would have resulted in families in large parts of Killara and Lindfield being placed in the catchment for the alternative school Lindfield Learning Village from next year, has been pushed out to 2028.

After a report by this masthead into community frustration at the change, maps have been altered to show no change between this year and next year. Instead, parents will have a two-year transitional window in 2026 and 2027, during which they can send their children to Lindfield Learning Village or Killara High. The proposed catchment changes are expected to come into effect in 2028.

The alteration blindsided many families that had purchased homes in the affluent area to access Killara High’s catchment zone.

Killara High was the fourth-most searched-for school district in the state for home buyers last year, and the fifth most popular among renters, according to data from Domain.

One concern for residents was the teaching style employed at Lindfield Learning Village, which differs from the “traditional” method employed at Killara High, as well as the departure of the school’s leadership team last year.

Debbie Levien with her children Oliver and Emilia, who have had a “stressful” week dealing with the uncertainty of changing catchments. Credit: Steven Siewert

Both schools perform well academically among comprehensive schools in the HSC – Killara came seventh last year, Lindfield Learning Village came 10th – though the latter opened in 2019 and has had only one graduating class of 47 students.

Debbie Levien, a mother of three who bought in Killara last year to live in the catchment zone, said it has been “a stressful few days” as her property had moved in and out of the catchment.

“That shouldn’t have happened in the first place. There needs to be a lot more community consultation before things are implemented that people are completely unaware of,” Levien said.

“We’re a bit sceptical of the whole change; taking it away and putting it back, it still shows uncertainty.

“There should be more consultation and there should be more transparency into why it’s been changed so quickly, what the decision behind that was, what the future will look like.”

Local member for Davidson Matt Cross welcomed the change, but said he was frustrated the government was making “life-changing” decisions for residents “on a whim”.

“The community welcomes the news, but it’s no way to run a school system. These decisions deeply impact families,” Cross said.

Cross wrote to Education Minister Prue Car on Monday calling for a joint catchment zone between Chatswood High, Killara High and Lindfield Learning Village. Cross said he would continue to pursue this.

A department spokesperson said the changes were made to meet the “educational needs of all students in the area” and the delay in rezoning would allow “Lindfield Learning Village to provide families with additional information about its academic programs”.

The spokesperson also said the department was “confident that Lindfield Learning Village will meet the evolving needs of the surrounding community”.

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