Growth and opportunities ahead for kids in Western Sydney, analysis shows
DETAILED analysis of the life of a child in Western Sydney today reveals how they will struggle to find a school and be squashed into too few classrooms.
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ONE third of NSW children will go to school in Western Sydney, where student numbers are rising at almost twice the rate as the rest of the state.
Analysis of the life of a child in Sydney’s west today reveals they could struggle to find a school and be squashed into too few classrooms.
The Saturday Telegraph can also reveal kids growing up in the west’s cultural melting pot will be more affluent than ever before, more likely to speak a foreign language at home and have a better chance of going to university.
“We can no longer say that Western Sydney is an area of disadvantage,” Western Sydney University Assistant Vice-Chancellor Dr Andy Marks said.
“Compared with the rest of the country it is relatively wealthy and middle class.”
The growth in student numbers is about 25 per cent, almost double the state average, with an extra 98,410 students projected to turn up in the region’s schools in the next eight years.
Grattan Institute research shows they will need 82 new primary schools and 27 new high schools.
“Schools in some areas are already overcrowded and so even a few extra students will trigger the need for a new school,” Peter Goss, the institute’s School Education Program Director said.
“Clearly Western Sydney and some areas of central Sydney are under the most pressure.”
Education Minister Rob Stokes said the government was focused on ensuring there were enough schools.
“Providing the schools to meet the challenge of catering for the next generation of NSW students is a big task, but it’s a wonderful challenge to have,” he said.
Dr Marks said the west had become a land of opportunity.
“When I grew up in Western Sydney, kids took a trade or left school early and joined the unemployment queue. University was not an option.”
According to the latest census 352,913 people in Western Sydney held degrees — up by more than a quarter from 2011 — and 152,544 held diplomas.
However, Dr Marks warned: “The University is very alarmed at the current freeze on university enrolment funding from the federal government.”
Despite this, he said, “kids growing up in Western Sydney now have choices”.
Dr Marks said many children who graduate in the future will join the 110,393 people working in healthcare across the region.
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“We are seeing a continued decline in manufacturing as an employer in Western Sydney,” he said. “Health precincts will be where children of the future will be working.”
Migration is a key driver of growth and change in the west. Children there are more likely to speak a foreign language: at home in Western Sydney 144,758 people speak Arabic, 78,522 speak Vietnamese and 70,170 speak Mandarin.
“We see a skilled migration program that is benefiting the west,” Dr Marks said.
“In Parramatta and Auburn it has been very positive but in Fairfield and Liverpool it needs to be properly resourced.”
The growth is making people richer. More than 30,000 people in the west take home more than $3000 a week.
TAKING A SPORTING CHANCE
KIDS in the west have never had so many chances to play sport.
Jack Lewis loves playing AFL with the Kellyville Rouse Hill Magpies but said, “I also like soccer, baseball and cricket.”
The eight-year-old’s mum Alison said growth in the area had led to an explosion of options.
The number of kids playing AFL, thanks to the success of the Western Sydney Giants, has doubled since 2010. In the last year female participation has increased by 24 per cent.
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Football NSW also saw a jump in boys and girls playing soccer in the west.
Sports Minister Stuart Ayres said the Active Kids voucher scheme, which pays $100 towards sport, had been a huge success.
“Western Sydney is seeing a resurgence of community sport and Active Kids is at the heart of it.”
GROWING CONCERN AS BABY BOOM SPEEDS UP
WESTERN Sydney is in the middle of baby boom. Last year more than 10,500 babies were born at Western Sydney Local Health District hospitals.
Primary schoolteacher Rachel Adams contributed when she gave birth to baby Lachlan on Wednesday. He weighed in at 4791g and dad Scott has high hopes of him running out for the Wests Tigers.
“He was delighted to have a boy,” said Rachel, who also has daughters Jessica, 4, and Felicity, 1. “I think the desire for a boy to even up the numbers was part of his enthusiasm.”
Helen Konowec, divisional nurse manager at Blacktown and Mount Druitt hospitals, said there has already been more than 1500 babies born at Blacktown Hospital this year — an average of 63 a week.
That is a 13.7 per cent increase over the 9126 babies born a decade earlier in 2007.
“This year alone, Blacktown Hospital surpassed all previous records with more than 330 births recorded in a single month,” she said.
The boom is being supported by a $700 million expansion of maternity, birthing and paediatric services at the Blacktown and Mount Druitt hospitals.
“The new facilities include new birthing rooms, most with birthing pools (and) expanded newborn care for babies.”
