Epping West Public: 1300 students, 12 kindergarten classes in 2019
The big squeeze at Epping West Public is causing young students to get injured in overcrowded playgrounds, as growing enrolments put the school at crisis point.
Pupils are being injured in crammed playgrounds at Epping West Public as the “well over capacity” school squeezes in more demountables to cope with the influx of enrolments.
Parents fear the wellbeing of their children will suffer as enrolments are set to hit nearly 1300 next year — 500 above what is considered a “reasonable” learning environment for a public school, Epping West P and C president Ben Yee says.
“When it is at this overcrowding level, a lot of things suffer including students becoming just a number,” said Mr Yee, who revealed there would be 27 demountables by term one next year.
“Epping West Public is well over capacity and it’s rapidly losing its amenities. At this rate there will be no green space left for the kids and students’ wellbeing will suffer.”
Parent Natalie Ng said her son, Jake, 7, was “badly hurt” in the playground, which was shrinking to make way for the extra demountables, last week.
“He was hit in the head by a flying ball because all the kids are playing in such a small space,” she said. “He complains all the time about having nowhere to run around.
“And it’s that bad now that kids are eating their lunches inside the classrooms before they are allowed out to play because there isn’t enough space for 1200 kids to sit outside on grassed areas to eat.”
The school is expected to have 12 kindergarten classes in 2019. Ms Ng’s five-year-old twins, Liam and Lucas, will be among the big intake.
“I worry about my twins and what the school’s going to look like by the time they are in Year 6,” she said.
“There were nine classes in the year that Jake started at the school and now it’s getting worse.”
Labor candidate for Epping Alan Mascarenhas said Epping West Public had “well and truly outgrown its original purpose”.
“The 27 demountables taking over the school oval is just out of control,” he said. “Whether it takes a day, week or a month, we’ll force the government to upgrade this school.
“I don’t care who gets the credit because it’s about the kids having proper classrooms. The government can get the ball rolling on this before Christmas.”
Epping state Liberal MP Damien Tudehope said negotiations were under way for a new primary school at a disused TAFE site in Chelmsford Ave.
“Epping West Primary and Eastwood Public are taking up a lot of the burden of development in this area,” he said.
A NSW Education Department spokesman said there were 12 major school building projects under way “in the vicinity” of Epping West Public.
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