Downlands College to welcome prep students from 2023 as part of $15m junior school expansion

One of Toowoomba’s most prestigious private schools will soon welcome children as young as five as part of a $15m expansion plan for the campus.

Downlands College students (from left) Cohen Moore, Sophie Reynolds, Jaxson Parker and Sasithmi Kevitiyagala as the college announces it will take Prep students from 2023. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Cohen Moore and his classmates are some of Downlands College’s youngest students right now, but they’ll soon enough be role models for entire classes of pupils coming straight from kindergarten.

One of Toowoomba’s most prestigious private schools will soon welcome children as young as five as part of a $15m expansion plan.

Downlands will take Prep to Year 3 students across two streams from 2023, adding an extra 176 students to the school’s population.

It will complete the school’s 90-year transformation from a boys boarding house to a P-12 coeducational college.

Principal Stephen Koch said the expansion of the junior campus, which began in 2017, was based on demand from the community.

“The demand from parents and families is strong, we’ve currently got a waiting list for year fours,” he said.

“We introduced years five and six in 2017, and then we’ve moved through to year four, so the natural progression was to go to Prep to three.

“A lot of that has been driven from families requesting it.”

Downlands will start work on the new junior wing next year, with the building expected to cost about $10m.

Downlands College principal Stephen Koch with students (from left) Cohen Moore, Sophie Reynolds, Jaxson Parker and Sasithmi Kevitiyagala as the college announces it will take Prep students from 2023, Wednesday, August 18, 2021. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Mr Koch said the school would also double its junior school teaching staff, with a focus on keeping student-teacher ratios low.

“We do a few things differently, we cap our classes to improve teaching and learning quality at 22,” he said.

“If we ended with 30 kids, we would run two classes of 15, so we’ll certainly look at giving the best learning environment.

“It’s all about quality over quantity – financially, it would make more sense to put 30 in every class but that’s not what it’s about.

“We’ll have 10 classes in the junior school so we’ll be employing between five and 10 new teachers.”

Mr Koch said the school, which is owned and conducted by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, was unique in that it was affiliated with the Catholic faith but not part of the diocese.

“The focus is holistic in that it’s academic growth but also social development,” he said.