New classrooms Indooroopilly State High Enrolment

The state government will crack down on out-of-catchment enrolments and build 16 new classrooms at a major Brisbane high school which has battled overcrowding for two decades.

The new demountable buildings will be built on the school’s oval but there will still be room for sports. Picture: Hayball.com

A major Brisbane high school, battling too many enrolments, has had an 11th-hour reprieve with the state government stepping in to build new classrooms and clampdown on out-of-catchment students, weeks before school starts.

Indooroopilly State High School will get 10 prefabricated demountable classrooms installed this week while work continues on an additional six classrooms within the school footprint.

It was expected the 16 new classrooms would open on day one of the school year when projected enrolment figures showed 2937 students for 2024 compared with a maximum enrolment capacity of 2241.

Students will take their seats in eight new classrooms in two double-storey buildings and a single-storey building will have two new learning spaces.

The move followed outrage after previous strategies to cater for the numbers included shutting the library and using storage rooms for classrooms.

A prefabricated classroom at Indooroopilly State High School. Picture: Hayball.com

The new prefabricated classrooms will be installed on the edge of one of the school’s ovals.

Education Minister Grace Grace made the announcement on Thursday after a year of campaigning by parents fed up with overcrowding and after the school’s shock move to ban out-of-catchment enrolments.

She said the school had been under enrolment pressure for the past two decades and assured parents the state was tightening enrolment compliance for those who lived out of the area.

“To ensure the school can accommodate projected in-catchment student numbers in the long term, a key component of the response for Indooroopilly State High School will be improved compliance with the School Enrolment Management Plan to reduce capacity pressures from out-of-catchment enrolments,” she said.

“Master planning has commenced for future infrastructure to enhance facilities at Indooroopilly to support its long-term, in-catchment student population to provide additional specialist spaces to support the delivery of school curriculum and to address any identified shortfalls in staff, administration and other ancillary facilities across the school site.

“The school community will be consulted through the master planning process and the department will continue to work closely with the school to ensure the needs of students are

met.”

Work has already started at the popular high school where more than 2700 students are expected next month. Picture: Contributed

Ms Grace said the 12-hectare school site had “plenty of green space” with sufficient room remaining for playing and sports fields.

Opposition Education spokesman and Moggill MP Christian Rowan, who has pushed for more classrooms at the school, said the extra 10 classrooms was a win for the school and students.

“This is some positive news for Indooroopilly State High School although there is still more master planning for the school and permanent infrastructure that needs to be delivered,” he said.

“With longstanding and increasing enrolment growth issues, not only at Indooroopilly but also at Kenmore State High, this issue has again highlighted the lack of planning, and the need for additional high school infrastructure for Brisbane’s Western suburbs.”

Indooroopilly State High School P & C vice-president Tony Ellison welcomed the new buildings but hoped they would not be permanent structures.

P & C vice-president Tony Ellison also welcomed the expansion and said using the demountable buildings had saved the school’s library, which had been under threat in previous designs.

But, he said he hoped the demountable buildings on the school oval would be a temporary measure.

“We are very appreciative and thankful at how fast the department moved to change its plans to allow us to keep the school library which is where the kids congregate,” he said.

“We have gone from plans that had four demountables over a road to 10 on the oval, which has allowed us to keep these vital assets such as the library, which we believe will be widely used under the mobile phone ban.

“There are already more than 20 demountable buildings at the school taking up green space and as much as we are disappointed with using the oval, classrooms will be of paramount importance,” Mr Ellison said.

Greens MP Michael Berkman also said he was relieved.

Mr Berkman had also lobbied the state to fix the overcrowding issue, since the plans to close the library were unveiled two weeks ago.

“Indooroopilly High needed new buildings years ago, but the government continues to play catch-up,” Mr Berkman said.

“While these new demountables are a promising first step, we need proper investment in long-term solutions for overcrowding at westside high schools.”