Pymble Ladies College: Sydney council approves 173 more students at north shore campus

The student population of a north shore private school is set to become bigger than the size of some entire NSW towns after being given the green light to increase its pupil headcount by more than 170 enrolments.

A top Sydney private school is facing calls to do more to address the driver behaviour of some students and parents as it pushes ahead with plans to increase its student headcount by more than 170 extra pupils.

A council planning panel has approved plans for an extra 173 students to be taught at Pymble Ladies College in a move to address rising enrolment demand and population growth in the northern Sydney region.

The approval comes as the college faces calls to do more to address the driver behaviour of some students and parents due to ongoing community concerns over traffic congestion during busy pick up and drop off periods.

The increase in the school’s enrolment numbers was approved at a Ku-ring-gai Council planning panel meeting and will take the college’s capacity to 2550 students – making the school population bigger than some NSW towns including Oberon and Jindabyne.

Pymble resident Vivienne Dimmick, who spoke at the planning panel meeting, has raised concerns over the increase, saying traffic gridlock is already a major issue for the community in peak school periods.

A photo of the college.

“The issue people have with the development is increased traffic and sometimes the inconsiderate behaviour of a handful of some of the students – you only have to drive around in school holiday periods versus school term to notice the difference,” she said.

“The drop off is gridlocked most mornings with parents in massive SUVs doing illegal three points in driveways, dropping kids off, getting bags from car boots, brushing hair, P-platers parking on the street creating chaos and let alone when a school bus needs to exit or enter.

“The college advertises that it wants to change the world with values of care and courage and integrity – maybe they can empower the girls to be part of the solution.”

The student increase has been approved by Ku-ring-gai Council.

Ms Dimmick suggested the school could implement a reward system to incentivise good driver behaviour such as offering canteen vouchers to students who do the right thing.

But school principal Kate Hadwen said previous incentive programs aimed at encouraging good driver behaviour “haven’t worked particularly well”.

Ms Hadwen said the school would be willing to investigate additional school pick up and drop off protocols used by other northern Sydney colleges including Barker College.

“I’m certainly happy to have a look at what (other schools do) that we could incorporate,” Ms Hadwen told the planning panel meeting.

School principal Kate Hadwen.

“Certainly we have staff who speak with students about carparking and the like and we monitor our parking spaces.

“We’re happy to go out to our students and ask them ‘are there other things that would incentivise them further?’”

The school’s plans for the increase comes after the college was granted planning approval for a new student facility that will include additional classrooms, science and tech labs, a dance academy, out of hours school facilities and an early learning centre.

The planning panel – which unanimously approved the enrolment increase – said the number of extra cars resulting from the rise in pupil numbers “is not expected to have any significant adverse impact on the surrounding key intersections and road network”.

“The proposed conditions of consent should ensure the ongoing proper management of traffic onsite, minimise impacts on surrounding road network, ensure safe access to students and meet the concerns of objectors,” the panel said in its approval statement.

The school’s plans stated the “increase to the existing student capacity will contribute towards meeting the growing need for school places”.