Gold Coast may need up to 37 new schools before 2041 to cope with population growth, state government data reveals

The Gold Coast is growing so fast it will need up to 37 new schools in the next two decades, 17 alone before the 2032 Olympic Games. Find out where >>

THE Gold Coast is growing so fast it will need up to 37 new schools in the next two decades, 17 alone before the 2032 Olympic Games.

The city was previously not expected to reach those heights until 2050.

State government data obtained by the Bulletin reveals that five schools will be needed in Coomera and Pimpama in the next 10 years and up to three for Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach and Broadbeach. These will be a mix of public and non-state schools.

Education Minister Grace Grace said since 2015 the government had invested almost $500m towards state school facilities on the Gold Coast.

“We have delivered three new schools in the past four years, and we’ll be opening the doors to another new school in 2022 – Coomera State Special School,” he said.

Coomera State Special School is under construction and due to open in 2022.

“In this financial year alone, we’re investing $171m to maintain, improve and upgrade schools on the Gold Coast.

“This includes a brand new $10.6m classroom block under construction at Palm Beach State School and a new $26m classroom block at Pacific Pines State High School.

“We’re also modernising our existing classrooms, with upgrades being delivered up and down the Coast, from Coomera Springs State School to Elanora State High School.”

Minister Grace said students and teachers were at the forefront of the new building designs, and airconditioning was being delivered to every classroom, library and staffroom through a $477m Cooler Cleaner Schools Program.

“We’re also delivering facilities that maximise our schools’ green space and make the best use of our schools’ footprint, for example vertical schools,” she said.

Education Minister Grace Grace. Picture, John Gass.

It’s understood the department regularly monitors enrolment growth across the short, medium and long-term and uses population projections prepared by the Queensland government statistician’s office, state school enrolments, and information from the Gold Coast City Council, developers and other local stakeholders.

Migrants from the southern states are driving the city’s population. It is expected to hit 810,000 in 2032 and exceed 1 million people in the immediate years after the Olympics.

Six years ago, leading demographer Bernard Salt said the Gold Coast would need 35 new schools by 2050 to cope with a population of 1.2 million.

He told the Bulletin this week that the recent blow of losing overseas students and international immigrants due to Covid had been partially offset by southerners, particularly Victorians, moving north.

“The Gold Coast delivers the kind of lifestyle and, despite Covid, the overall population of the city will prevail in a post-Covid era once immigration returns,” he said.

He also thinks the pandemic has enhanced learning opportunities for students with a range of classes now able to be taught and learnt from home.

“This is not boring history teachers in front of a Zoom camera. It’s a really sophisticated and well-produced and directed series that flesh out a particular topic and give students a deeper and richer and more targeted experience,” he said.

“Covid has opened the opportunity to enable experts from across the globe to deliver insight and expertise without having to physically get them to a classroom.

“A whole range of services can now be bolted on to the classroom experience, without industry leaders having to give up a day travelling.”

Mr Salt also foresees “dedicated zoom rooms” in homes, particularly as workers ditch commutes on clogged highways and prefer to “zoom in and out”.

“I expect in a lifestyle destination like the Gold Coast there’ll be a particularly greater reliance on technology.”

The site of Coomera State Special School.

Futures Gold Coast — What classrooms will look like in 2032

‘Self-regulating’ schooling Gold Coast’s educational future according to Griffith University Professor – November 12, 2021

Gold Coast classrooms will be in a different realm come 2032, with more students working from home and “self-regulating”.

Timetables will be turned upside down with the traditional five subject lessons a day tipped to be canned.

However, it will take strong political will to think “outside of the box” to embrace the change, and the city will still need dozens of new schools to accommodate a population boom.

Southern Cross University’s Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education, said she was expecting, and hoping, for the development of a more diverse range of specialist schools in the next decade.

Southern Cross University School of Education Associate Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, at the Harvey Norman GC Women of the Year awards at The Star. Picture by Richard Gosling

“Mainstream schooling doesn’t work for a lot of children and what we’re starting to see is a change to the one-size-fits all approach to schooling,” she said.

“We’ll see the breakdown of the traditional schooling system in that sense and start to look at what’s good for children and young people, not just what’s cost effective and efficient for politicians and economies.”

Prof Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles said the Gold Coast was already on its way with schools such as the newly built Arcadia College in Robina and Silkwood.

“If we continue to build brick and mortar-type schools with 30 kids in a classroom then we won’t be catering to the diverse needs of our future leaders, and that’s certainly not going in the right direction.

“But this does require our politicians and ministers’ will power to stand up and notice and say ‘OK, let’s think outside of the box’.”

“Unfortunately mainstream schools can break a child. We need to be doing better and I believe the Gold Coast will be well on its way to this by 2032.”

The completed Arcadia College campus in Robina.

Sarah Prestridge, an Associate Professor at Griffith University’s School of Education and Professional Studies said: “It comes back to building students’ capabilities.

“It’s not about the structure and it’s not about the infrastructure, we need to be able to learn in any which way any which where and any which why.”

Assoc Prof Prestridge, who does research in the areas of digital pedagogies and teacher professional development, said Covid had only accelerated the new form of learning.

“You’ll always have a teacher, that’s not going to change, but the idea of a classroom will,” she said.

“Online learning still requires teachers as managers and to provide stimulating social engagement and learning pathways, but the notion of teaching and online learning is actually different.”

Timetables are set to look very different in 2032 as academics say there’ll be more emphasis on education being “self-regulating”. Australia Picture: iStock

She said over the next few years teachers will be building students’ capacities to learn online, most already were, especially after Covid lockdowns forced schools to shut.

“The notion of virtual and online teaching will be more prevalent with students only coming into campus or high school grounds when it’s absolutely necessary for practical learning,” she said.

“Children will be taught to self-regulate more, manage their time, work with peers and teachers and use online space.

“In 10 years time we’re going to be rethinking the notion of a timetable, what we’ve seen since the pandemic is students doing a deep dive into one subject a day instead of spending 45 minutes on one and then changing after another 45 minutes and so on.”

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