Highfields Secondary College revealed as the fastest-growing school in Toowoomba region

New data has revealed the fastest-growing schools in the Toowoomba region, and one campus rules above the rest. Find out where your school ranks here:

Chris Kemp and his niece Lily Kemp outside Highfields State Secondary College.

The school pick-up routine at Highfields Secondary College is a mad rush to navigate for Chris Kemp and his niece Lily of an afternoon, with new data suggesting it’s only going to get busier.

The new high school is easily the fastest-growing public campus in the Toowoomba region according to statistics from the Department of Education.

Highfields’ enrolments went from just 473 in 2016 to more than 1000 this year, a 114 per cent increase that now makes it the region’s third-largest public school.

While the introduction of new cohorts every year since the school was founded in 2015 would’ve contributed to the rapid growth, Mr Kemp said it also had to do with the expansion of Highfields.

Highfields State Secondary College is the fastest-growing public school in the Toowoomba region.

“I’ve lived here (in Highfields) for about seven years (and) we’ve definitely seen growth here, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Highfields is becoming its own little town, so we’re becoming very self-sufficient.

“(With my business) we’re delivering out here more and more, the population out at Kleinton is just phenomenal with those new subdivisions, so we’re out here every day.”

Longtime Highfields resident Maureen Davis, whose granddaughter Taylor Logan is in Year 11, said the area’s rapid growth had been staggering.

“It’s unbelievable, I just can’t get over it, in the 30 years I’ve been here, it went from a very rural place to what it is today,” she said.

The new department data, which tracks every school’s population growth for 2016, 2020 and 2021, also exposes serious growing pains at the region’s largest high schools.

Harristown State High School has undergone campus expansions in recent years to cater for an extra 239 students since 2016 (15 per cent).

Centenary Heights State High School has grown by 13 per cent (205 students) over the past five years, while Wilsonton State High increased its enrolments by a whopping 24 per cent (179 students).

The statistics come after calls by the community for a new high school in Toowoomba’s western corridor, most likely based at Westbrook.

The State Government has been investigating a new high school in western Toowoomba, while the LNP promised funding to start the process at the state election last year.

Of schools with statistically-significant populations, the other big jumps were at Harlaxton State School (63 per cent), Wyreema State School (53 per cent), Toowoomba North State School (43 per cent) and Harristown State School (27 per cent).

Meanwhile, primary schools like Fairview Heights and Drayton (down 25 per cent), Gabbinbar (down 17 per cent) and Oakey (down 15 per cent) had the largest population drops. The region’s public school population grew by eight per cent to nearly 19,000 students.

The Department of Education was contacted for comment regarding Highfields Secondary College.