Northern beaches: Which schools are oversubscribed, have the most demountables
One school on the peninsula has more than double the number of students and 15 demountable classrooms.
Manly
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There are 119 demountable classrooms at oversubscribed schools on the northern beaches, with 15 at just one primary school.
Narrabeen North Public School has 743 enrolled, more than double its official capacity of 347.
It currently has 15 demountables on site.
Meanwhile, Mona Vale Public with 1086 students, 300 more than the capacity, has 14 demountables.
Both Balgowlah Heights Public and Northern Beaches Secondary College Mackellar, both have nine.
The figures from the Department of Education reveal that the majority of the 22 schools on the peninsula with demountables are primary schools, although three high schools, Pittwater High, Mackellar Girls and Balowlgah Boys all have demountables.
Two schools which have recently been expanded Manly Vale Public and Curl Curl North
Public still have plenty of space for more students.
But Harbord Public which expanded upwards in 2017 in a $13.5m upgrade creating 18 new classrooms, has 88 more pupils than its capacity of 971 and already has one demountable on site.
The enrolment capacity number is not an indication of the enrolment capacity of a school. It is used to indicate that non-local students cannot be enrolled when a school is approaching or exceeding the set enrolment cap, except in exceptional circumstances.
But most of those exceeding the official capacity figure have demountables.
The Department of Education spokeswoman said the government had opened 89 new or upgraded schools across NSW since January last year and said demountables helped schools accommodate a surge in the student population.
“The department monitors population trends to plan for future enrolment demand and uses numerous strategies to manage fluctuating enrolments in the short to medium terms,” she said.
There are plans to expand more northern beaches schools.
The two schools with the most demountables are to get upgrades.
Mona Vale Public is due to see its demountables replaced with new classrooms.
While there are plans to turn Narrabeen North Public and Narrabeen Sports High into an educational hub with upgraded facilities which will help cope with demand.
David Hope, President of the Northern Sydney District Council P & C Association, said there
had been a move by NSW Education to encourage people to go to their local schools, by having stricter boundaries.
He said that had helped reduced the issue of one school being oversubscribed, while another nearby is under-utilised.
However, he said demand for schools on the lower end of the peninsula had been a problem for some time, although the improvements at Curl Curl North Public and Manly Vale Public had helped alleviate that.
He said there were still issues at Balgowlah Heights Public which has some older style buildings and a large number of demountables.
“There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with demountables,” Mr Hope said.
“We have school populations going up and down all the time.
“If we build bigger buildings we can end up with empty classrooms.”
He said the modern demountables were every good, but the older ones were “pretty grotty”.