Migrant families targeting Victoria’s top schools for educational headstart
Enrolments from students from multicultural backgrounds have jumped in Victoria’s top government schools, as migrant families target high quality education.
Education
Don't miss out on the headlines from Education. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Ethnic student enrolments at top government schools are up to 95 per cent as migrant families target high quality public education.
And the multicultural makeup of schools in certain suburbs has changed markedly in recent years amid huge migrant intakes.
Glen Waverley PS is perhaps Victoria’s least “Anglo”’ school, with 95 per cent of its students hailing from non-English backgrounds (NESB) in 2020.
The school is a feeder for high-performing Glen Waverley SC (89 per cent ethnic), so the suburb is a magnet for aspirational new arrivals, mainly from India and China.
Sought-after Balwyn High, mainly by Chinese arrivals, has a 72 per cent NESB cohort, according to a Herald Sun analysis of data on the MySchool website.
Also dominated by ethnic enrolments are state selective schools, which don’t require students to live nearby, but set stringent tests for admission.
Among these girls’ school Suzanne Cory High in Werribee has a 92 per cent NESB population, up from 87 per cent in 2015.
Coeducational selective school Nossal High in Berwick is 89 per cent NESB, up from 79 per cent in 2015.
By contrast, nearby Berwick SC had a NESB cohort of only eight per cent in 2020.
Original selective boys’ school Melbourne High went from 79 per cent ethnic in 2015 to 86 per cent in 2020.
And Mac.Robertson Girls’ High has remained steady with an 88 per cent ethnic student cohort over the past five years.
By contrast, only about a quarter of Victorians speak a language other than English at home, according to the 2016 census.
Australian Population Research Institute director Dr Bob Birrell said:”The growing concentration of NESB students in high-performing high schools located in expensive residential areas reflects the willingness of their parents to pay a premium to gain entry to these schools.”
Dr Birrell said the dominance of ethnic students in the newer selective schools, Nossal High in the outer east, and Suzanne Cory High, in the west, was no surprise.
“These schools were located there in order to provide access to high quality education for outer suburban students,” he said.
“But the increasing concentration of NESB students in these schools, most of whom travel from elsewhere in Melbourne, reflects the willingness of their parents to pay the extra transport costs, and to bear the inconvenience of long distance travel.”
The MySchool data shows that Dandenong High, which services a traditionally significant migrant hotspot, had a high NESB student population of 91 per cent.
And schools in some other suburbs are undergoing big demographic shifts as migrants target desirable areas.
In 2015, Vermont PS in the outer east had a NESB cohort of 40 per cent, but this rose to 62 per cent by 2020.
Nearby Mitcham PS went from 48 per cent to 52 per cent over the same period.
Eltham High is probably the city’s most Anglo school, with an ethnic student enrolment of only six per cent.
Bullying in schools is endemic. Are kindness classes the solution?
Kindness classes to teach children how to be more resilient and empathetic are being pushed as a potential solution to solve bullying in schools.
St Columba’s College teacher sacked for slapping student on hand
The long-serving science technician at the Catholic girls’ school has been sacked after she was found to have slapped a student on the hand during a year 9 biology dissection class.