Williams Landing parents fear the consequences of the suburb not having any schools

Parents of a suburb in Melburne’s west fear their children will miss out on a decent education unless the state government acts.

Parents of a suburb in Melbourne’s west — part of the city’s fastest growing population corridor — fear their children will miss out on a decent education as concerns over a school shortage grow.

Despite the population of Williams Landing increasing by more than 3000 people in the past five years, the suburb is without a school, forcing parents to consider longer travel times or move.

Locals and Wyndham Council have been lobbying the state government for education support since 2014 through the schools4wyndham campaign and an online petition that has received 1200 signatures.

Williams Landing is home to about 1000 primary school aged kids.

Resident Nasiba Anni, whose daughter starts primary school in two years, said parents with young children are desperate for a school closer to home.

“Williams Landing is a great suburb and is always growing, but then it doesn’t have any schools in it,” she said.

“Both my husband and I have to commute into work, so there will be the issue around drop-offs which becomes a lot harder when the school is in a different suburb.

“We went and spoke to one of the schools who said the waiting time is something like four or five years.

“Some people even register their kids’ name when they‘re born.

“I think it puts stress on the other suburbs as well because there are so many families in Williams Landing and they all have to get out of the suburb to go to a different school, so you can imagine the build up of traffic.”

Ms Anni said while neighbouring schools are only “10 minutes away on a good day” she feared increases in traffic would see this blow out and make it harder for working parents.

Likewise fellow Williams Landing resident Nimisha Verma said parents have to make a choice between sending their kids to crowded public schools in other suburbs or pay big fees for a private education.

“Either you send your kid to a public school, which is already heavily populated or you pay a lot of money for a grammar school, which has seven years long waiting list or go to a religious school. That’s pretty much it and I wouldn’t call that lots of options,” she said.

Overpopulation at Wyndham schools is already an issue, with the LGA recording

983 students per government school — the highest in the state, and nearly double the Greater Melbourne average of 540.

Ms Verma said overpopulation at local schools is that bad she put her unborn daughter on a waiting list at Westbourne Grammar in fear of missing out.

Last year the Andrews government added Williams Landing into Truganina South Primary School’s enrolment zone, as part of a bigger shared enrolment plan until 2025.

Last week Wyndham Mayor Susan McIntyre called on the state government to build more schools, with Wyndham’s population expected to grow to over half a million by 2040.

On existing trends, Wyndham is expected to have a shortfall of six schools by 2031, with this blowing out to 16 by 2041.

Four new schools have opened in Wyndham 2023, including Ngarri Primary School in Manors Lake which had 259 students turn up on the first day.

Another seven are planned to open in 2024.

A government spokesman said: “We’re ahead of schedule in opening 100 new schools by 2026, with 75 new schools opening between 2019 and 2024 – ensuring every student can access a great local school no matter where they live.”

“It includes opening 21 new schools in Wyndham — the most of any LGA in the state — to give local students the learning spaces and facilities they need and deserve to thrive at school and in life.”