P & C says failure to expand school will create enormous backlash
THE State Government has revealed there are no plans to increase capacity at The Ponds High School despite it being near capacity, three years after it was built.
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THE State Government has revealed there are no plans to increase capacity at The Ponds High School despite ongoing calls from the wider community and the school’s Parents and Citizens group.
School Infrastructure NSW chief executive Terry Stevens told the school community capacity issues were dealt with through redevelopment or school catchment boundaries being realigned “so that all schools within an area are used and benefit from any new projects”.
However, Mr Stevens said the Education Department expected the Riverstone High School redevelopment, which is expected to be completed by mid-2020, would “meet increasing enrolment demand in the area and ease enrolment pressures at The Ponds High School”.
P & C president Roland De Pree said the failure to increase the school’s capacity would create enormous backlash and anger.
“The NSW Minister for Education and his department have admitted, after 1½ years of consistently asking and pushing for answers, that they have no intention to increase the current capacity at The Ponds High School,” Mr De Pree said.
‘This can only mean that demountable after demountable will have to be dumped on our school grounds.
“The Riverstone High School upgrade will only add 12 new classrooms; hardly enough to cater for their own demand when looking at the huge developments in their catchment area.”
hat will enter the school over the next year, meaning we will be well over capacity,” he said.
Mr De Pree said the school was built to cater for a maximum 1200 students and there were 1114 students enrolled.
“After four years we are still completely full and we still have an influx of students t
“This school was only opened in 2015 and labelled a massive success but, in hindsight, it was completely underestimating demand and just wrongly planned.
“We have been rallying the minister for more than a year and at first they even rejected the idea that there was a problem.”
The P & C estimates that more than 50 learning spaces are required to meet the demands of 2019 and 2020 — when the school cohort is complete.
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Riverstone Labor candidate Anne Marie Christie called on Riverstone state Liberal MP Kevin Conolly to include upgrades for the school in the 2018 State Budget.
“What we are seeing at The Ponds High School is happening right across the electorate — poor planning for future growth is putting our children’s education at risk,” Dr Christie said.
“A growing community deserves sensible planning and consideration to make sure local infrastructure keeps up with expected demand.”
Mr Conolly was contacted for comment.