Housing crisis: Noosa school loses families while others are forced to drive from Gympie

One Noosa region school lost 10 per cent of its enrolments due to the housing shortage while other families are driving from Gympie for school. Vote in our poll.

One Noosa region school has lost 10 per cent of its enrolments due to the housing crisis, while families at another are living in Gympie and driving south for daily drop-off and pick-up.

Some Noosa schools have also recorded a drop in enrolment between 2021 and 2022.

A schooling expert said the housing crisis was a small part of enrolment fluctuations across the state.

Noosa Christian College enrolments officer Jacinta Benade said the Cooroy school lost about 10 per cent of its 350 enrolments at the start of the year because they could not find affordable housing or work in the area.

She said more recently one family which had moved north from New South Wales left the school and moved west because they could not find housing or work either.

Noosa Christian College enrolments officer Jacinta Benade says the school lost 10 per cent of its enrolments at the start of the year due to the housing crisis.

“You hire your staff, teachers on the expected number of students and then you have families through no fault of their own at the last minute say they can’t make it and you find you’ve overextended,” Mrs Benade said.

Noosa Pengari Steiner School registrar Ruth Chambers-Hall said enrolments at the Doonan school had remained strong, and the waiting list number had “snowballed” in the past couple of years.

“We’ve had a large influx of people come on to our waiting list from southern states,” she said.

She said some of the school’s families and staff members were moving north to Gympie because they could not find an affordable home in Noosa.

The Noosa Pengari Steiner School in Doonan has some families and staff driving to and from Gympie to attend the school.

“It’s certainly an issue, finding affordable accommodation,” she said.

Department of Education numbers show Noosaville State School recorded a drop in enrolments, from 461 in 2021 to 432 in 2022.

In 2016, the school had 517 enrolments.

Sunshine Beach State School, while recording a drop from 835 students in 2021 to 797 this year, has recorded an overall increase since 2016.

Tewantin State School has remained steady, with a decrease of three enrolments between 2021 and 2022.

Queensland Association of State School Principals president Pat Murphy said the housing crisis was playing a small role in enrolment fluctuations.

Schools throughout the Noosa region have recorded a drop in enrolments. Picture: Nikki Short

“We’re noticing across the state that there’s definitely changes in movement that has resulted over the past two years because of Covid,” he said.

“We’re not seeing the same influx of kids during winter.”

He said schools were also ensuring children lived in their catchment areas or close to them and that also affected enrolment numbers.

A Department of Education spokesman said many schools were subject to fluctuations in enrolments because of demographic factors like seasonal workers and the impacts of drought.

“Regions work with individual schools to plan and manage school resourcing for each school year in the lead up to the commencement of a new school year,” he said in a statement.

“ A school is resourced for the year on the basis of their enrolments on day eight of the school year and those resources remain in place for the remainder of the year.”