SEQ’s most crowded schools – and how many kids live out of their catchment

Some of south-east Queensland’s most crowded state schools accept the majority of their students from outside their local areas, despite rules stating they must restrict out-of-catchment enrolments.

Exclusive Brisbane Times analysis can reveal the Metropolitan-region schools that are over their capacity and the percentage of students enrolled in each despite not living in the catchment area.

Search the full list of enrolment, in-catchment and capacity figures for enrolment management plan schools in south-east Queensland.Credit: iStock

Brisbane South State Secondary College, in Dutton Park, opened in 2021 to take pressure off the prestigious Brisbane State High School, which had been bursting at the seams for more than a decade.

However, last year, two-thirds (66 per cent) of Brisbane South State Secondary College’s 460 students lived outside its catchment zone.

That’s in contrast with early plans for 20 per cent of the inner-city school’s students to come from outside-catchment, a proposal reported in 2018 when a site was yet to be chosen.

Meanwhile, Brisbane State High - Australia’s largest state secondary school - continued to grow, with 45 per cent of its 3419 students living out-of-catchment last year.

Brisbane State High is in hot demand for its excellent reputation, and last year almost one-third of Queensland’s year 12 students who received the top ATAR of 99.95 went to Brisbane State High (10 of 33 Queensland students).

This masthead sourced enrolment and in-catchment figures from August 2022 from the Education Department’s Schools Directory website and compared this with capacity figures listed in each individual school’s enrolment management plan (EMP), generally gazetted between September and December 2022.

We asked the department for updated capacity figures for 15 schools, which had EMPs as old as 2018 or not available, but were told we would need to submit a Right to Information request.

As an example, we asked about Junction Park State School in Annerley, which had 537 students enrolled in August 2022, while its EMP dated September 2018 stated its capacity was 536 students.

One-third of Junction Park’s students lived out-of-catchment.

A department spokesman said Junction Park’s EMP was assessed as not requiring an update.

“The department undertakes an annual statewide analysis of school utilisation rates using enrolments and student enrolment capacity to identify schools that are required to implement, rescind or update a school EMP,” he said.

“Should the department’s analysis indicate any school, such as Junction Park State School, requires changes to its EMP, or the implementation of an EMP, a review, update and gazetting will occur.”

Last year, Stretton State College, with a capacity for 2330, had 3340 students, with 70.98 per cent living in-catchment.

But a department spokesman said capacity was available at Stretton State College – which had grown to 3448 enrolments in February this year – and its EMP was under review.

The spokesman said the school had two significant upgrades since 2022, a primary campus early learning centre and senior campus technology learning centre, while “10 new learning spaces” should be ready by late 2023.

“The only out-of-catchment students admitted to the college are students who enter the sporting excellence academies and academic excellence program,” he said.

The spokesman said some schools accommodated a higher percentage of out-of-catchment enrolments because of excellence programs, students whose parent or legal guardian was employed by the school, students with a verified disability needing to access a specific program, children and young people who were subject to child protection orders, students who were excluded from a school and siblings of current students.

“Parents have the choice of enrolling their child in their local school, seeking a place at a school with a school EMP by contacting the school to see if places are available for out-of-catchment enrolments, or enrolling at a school that does not have a school EMP in place,” he said.