17 new schools announced as government copes with high demand
Student numbers are spiking in Victoria, with the government unveiling 17 new hi-tech schools — including “vertical campuses” — set to open from 2021. See if your suburb is one of the target areas.
Education
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New schools are opening at capacity as the government reveals 17 cutting-edge campuses amid the highest ever spike in student numbers.
Melbourne’s growth areas and the inner city will face a $650 million building boom as schools of the future are unveiled to 2022.
Swelling suburbs in the north, west and southeast are being targeted as the government works to manage the state’s burgeoning student population.
Four new high-rise schools and a revolutionised historic city landmark are among plans to cope with an added 80,000 Victorian students by 2023 — to an estimated 1,074,815 pupils.
In the inner city alone, from Parkville to Prahran and Port Melbourne, the number of public school kids has almost doubled in the past decade, to more than 10,000 students.
Victoria’s public and private campuses have been absorbing an added 20,000 students each year since 2017 — that year showed six times the growth rate to the decade before.
The demand is so great that new schools in Melbourne’s west are opening at capacity.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar’s second campus, in Woodlea Estate at Aintree, is already looking to buy more land within four months of opening fully enrolled with 650 primary students.
The private school now plans to build a secondary campus that it never thought it would need.
“We are madly scrambling now to add capacity,” principal Andrew Neal said.
“Schools are just not being built for the demand for kids that are going to be there.”
Mr Neal said five years ago, school leaders made plans for the Woodlea campus based on the idea that it would fail.
“Rather than failing, it’s full,” he said, adding that further campuses could be on the horizon.
A new public school, Rockbank North Primary, will be built in Woodlea Estate next to Bacchus Marsh Grammar, to open in 2021.
Woodlea Estate project director Matt Dean says he’s already fielding enrolment inquiries for the school that doesn’t yet exist, while there’s plans for another primary and secondary school.
“We’re not keeping up with the influx of new residents in these areas,” he said.
“Every school around this area is basically at capacity, a lot of schools depend on portables just to cater for their students.
“Here, it’s gone from paddocks to a thriving community within three years with 3,500 people,” he said.
Victoria’s student growth was stable from 1996 to 2011, with about 5,000 extra pupils each year.
But that growth rate almost doubled in 2012 and has skyrocketed ever since — current estimates now forecast year-on-year increases of 22,000 pupils by 2023.
Education Minister James Merlino said the government was opening 100 new schools over eight years “to keep pace with the state’s growth”.
“Victoria is undergoing significant changes,” he said.
“So we’re responding to demographic shifts. We’re seeing more young families than ever before choosing to live in the inner city. We’re also seeing strong growth in Victoria’s regional cities like Geelong.”
Victorian School Building Authority chief executive Chris Keating said the 17 new schools would “look and feel different to those many of us attended as kids”.
“We are anticipating the changes in our cities and suburbs and the way technology is shifting the way teachers teach, and students learn in the design and construction of our schools,” he said.
FUTURE SCHOOLS TO BE COMMUNITY HEART
“Schools will be closely integrated with their local communities through shared facilities like libraries and sportsgrounds. This not only transforms neighbourhoods but it also develops stronger relationships with local schools.”
The 17 new schools are expected to cater for 11,100 students.
The government has committed to building a further 53 schools by 2026.
SCHOOLS OF THE FUTURE ARE COMING
Victoria’s schools of the future won’t just be schools.
They will be community spaces with shared libraries and sporting grounds, early learning centres and special needs hubs.
Schools will no longer be built with just the students and their families in mind.
New designs are considering the entire community, adding in meeting rooms, child health facilities, kindergartens and recreation and sports spaces.
Three new campuses will have Inclusion Hubs so students with special needs and disabilities can learn in a mainstream school setting.
Those hubs will be built into Cranbourne West 7-12, Greenvale North West Primary and Wollahra Primary, all to be opened for term 1 in 2021.
Eyensbury Station Primary and Timbertop Primary will both have an early learning centre.
More high rise, or vertical, schools will be built in the inner city as space constraints push governments to build up rather than out.
The latest budget, with 17 new campuses at a price tag of $648 million, includes funding for four vertical schools.
Docklands Primary will to open in 2021 while secondary campuses Fishermans Bend, a new McKinnon and Fitzroy Gasworks will follow in 2022.
The Gasworks school will be designed around community feedback, while heritage and indigenous consultants have been hired.
A draft concept for the redesign of the site has been created from public commentary, which urged that the history, indigenous heritage, art and streetscapes be retained.
The community will get a say on the name of the schools, too.
Of the 17 new schools, only McKinnon’s second campus has a name that’s locked in.
Each community will have the chance to weigh in on what their local school will be called.
That means sites like Thoroughbred Primary in Clyde North, reflecting the area’s stables and riding schools, could end up being named something completely different.
THE LATEST NEW SCHOOLS
OPENING IN 2021
Armstrong Creek Secondary College
Location: Batten Rd, Armstrong Creek
Capacity: 1100 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: Year 7 — 12
Cranbourne West 7-12 and Inclusion Hub (for students with disabilities and special needs)
Location: Cranbourne West
Capacity: 1100 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: Year 7
Docklands Primary School (High rise school)
Location: Cnr Footscray Rd and Little Docklands Dve
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: TBC
Edgars Creek Primary School
Location: Wollert
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: Prep to Grade 6
Eynesbury Station Primary School and Early Learning Centre
Location: TBC
Capacity: 475 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: TBC
Greenvale North West Primary School
Location: Greenvale
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: Prep to Grade 6
Merrifield West Primary School
Location: Mickleham
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: Grades Prep — 6
Pakenham Henry Road Secondary School
Location: Pakenham
Capacity: 1200 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: Year 7
Rockbank North Primary School
Location: Aintree
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: TBC
Timbertop Primary School and Early Learning Centre
Location: Officer
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: Grades Prep — 6
Thoroughbred Primary School
Location: Clyde North
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: Grades Prep — 6
Truganina South East Primary School
Location: Truganina
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: TBC
Wollahra Primary School and Inclusion Hub
Location: Wyndham Vale
Capacity: 525 students
Opening: Term 1, 2021
Launching with: TBC
OPENING IN 2022
Fitzroy Gasworks Senior Campus (high-rise school)
Location: 111 Queens Parade, Fitzroy North
Capacity: 650 students
Opening: Term 1, 2022
Launching with: TBC
Bass Coast Junior Secondary School
Location: TBC
Capacity: TBC
Opening: 2022
Launching with: TBC
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Fishermans Bend Secondary School (high-rise school)
Location: 477 Graham St, Port Melbourne
Capacity: 1100 students
Opening: Term 1, 2022
Launching with: Year 7
McKinnon Secondary College second campus (high-rise school)
Location: South Drive, East Bentleigh
Capacity: 650 students (long term for 1100)
Opening: Term 1, 2022
Launching with: TBC
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