Annette Sharp: Spotlight on Scots College application to increase enrolments
Scots College has amended a controversial application to increase its student cap at one of two Bellevue Hill campuses, but some neighbours are not impressed, writes Annette Sharp.
Opinion
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Scots College has amended a controversial application to increase its student cap at one of two Bellevue Hill campuses by 400 students, from 1120 to 1520 students.
Woollahra Council last week confirmed it has received correspondence from the prestigious Presbyterian boys school advising of the amendment.
It comes after the My School/Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority website recorded the school’s enrolment figure for last year as 2086 students, a figure later highlighted by the media.
In response, council requested the school clarify enrolment numbers at its two Bellevue Hill campuses, one in Victoria Rd where the senior school is located and a second, for the prep and junior school, in Mansion Rd.
Based on 2020 data, council noted, the Victoria Rd campus boasts some 1489 students — a figure which exceeds the current 1120 cap by 369 students and is shy of the newly proposed cap.
Similarly, the Mansion Rd preparatory campus exceeds the teacher/pupil cap of 500 by 34.
This figure comprises 472 students and 62 staff.
The cap, as stipulated in the school’s 1992 master plan, was established to manage traffic congestion in one of Sydney’s most affluent suburbs where every second vehicle is a Range Rover.
The subject is a sensitive one in Bellevue Hill, where neighbours have been campaigning for a decade — and even taken the school to court — in the hope of holding the school to its student quota in the interests of safety.
Some 350 neighbours have joined Concerned Scots Neighbours, a group which remains concerned about the school’s commitment to an underground carpark and kiss-and-drop zone, on which the school is yet to break ground.
Among Scots critics is multi-millionaire property developer Ian Joye, who in 2021 opposed the school’s plans to increase student numbers.
Billionaire Atlassian founder Scott Farquhar is another.
Got a news tip? Email annette.sharp@news.com.au
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