The suburbs where most families choose state schools over private

Brisbane State High School has so much pulling power that four out of five high schoolers living in its catchment suburbs of West End and Highgate Hill will receive a state school education instead of independent or Catholic.

As Brisbane City Council pushes for taller, higher-density developments on the Kurilpa peninsula, school P&Cs warn of the pressure adding more residents will have on schools, green space and transport.

Last year, Brisbane State High School had 3521 students, despite a maximum capacity of 3000, with 45 per cent living outside its catchment but gaining entry via academic, sport or cultural selective entry.

Four in five high schoolers living in West End and Highgate Hill choose to attend their local government high school over an independent or Catholic school.Credit: Dan Peled

The lure of the top-performing GPS state school is such that many families buy or rent a home in West End just to secure entry.

To weed out enrolment fraud, the school enforces a strict enrolment policy that asks for proof of a sale or lease agreement, three recent electricity bills, insurance policies, and a statutory declaration students will continue living in-catchment.

But a KPMG report from 2016 found about 20 per cent of parents moved out of the catchment within two years of their children being enrolled at BSHS.

One dad, who asked not to be named, said his family moved from the northside and rented in West End almost a decade ago after researching schools and settling on Indooroopilly, Kelvin Grove and Brisbane State High as the top options.

After struggling to find a house they could afford to buy, they decided renting in West End was the best option to get into BSHS.

“The culture of the school is marvellous – it’s really, really good,” he said.

“I can see why it’s popular. This kind of quality, if you can find it in a private school, it would cost a mortgage for three kids.”

The appeal of Brisbane’s second-largest high school has contributed to a hot property market in West End, where “BSHS catchment” was listed on every real estate ad, and the median house price rose 17.9 per cent to $1.65 million in the year to December, according to Domain data.

The median unit price rose 13.9 per cent to $723,500.

Last year, some parents said they feared State High’s merit-based entry system was at risk from the surging population, claiming families were gaming the system by buying properties within the West End catchment area.

Private high schools in the 4101 postcode are single sex – St Laurence’s College for boys, which is Catholic, and Somerville House for girls, which is independent.

In 2022, the former Labor state government opened a $34 million expansion of the suburb’s primary school, West End State School, boosting its capacity to 1730 students.

But the Queensland schools planning reference committee map, released last year, says a new primary school may be required in the South Brisbane, West End, Highgate Hill area within the next decade.

In a submission to the public consultation process for the Kurilpa Sustainable Growth Precinct TLPI from 2023, the West End State School P&C said the school was already under strain and the TLPI would add pressure on enrolments.

The BSHS P&C also said plans to allow developers to build up to 90 storeys would exacerbate pressure on schools and transport.

Brisbane South State Secondary College, in Dutton Park, opened in 2021 to take pressure off State High. Last year it had 968 students, with a capacity of 1524 students, and 62 per cent living out-of-catchment.

In Wishart and Mansfield, more than 79 per cent of secondary students attend a government high school, and both suburbs are in the catchment for Brisbane’s largest state school – Mansfield State High – which is known for excellence programs, including French.

It has a maximum student enrolment capacity of 3252 students, and 29 per cent of its 3651 students last year lived out-of-catchment.

A Brisbane Times analysis of census data found the top suburbs for Catholic high school students were Sandgate, Ashgrove, Kedron and Camp Hill.

Ascot, Gumdale, Chelmer, Bulimba and East Brisbane were the top suburbs for independent school students.

Families in West End, with a penchant for a state school education, had a median household income ($2114) higher than some of the top private school suburbs of East Brisbane, Clayfield, Hamilton and New Farm.

In the northern coastal suburb of Sandgate, which has a median weekly income of $1804, a greater proportion of high school students (69 per cent) attended a Catholic or independent school than in one of Brisbane’s most affluent suburbs, Brookfield (66 per cent), which had a median income of $3778.