By Lucy Carroll and Nigel Gladstone
When Riverbank Primary School opened its doors in one of the fastest growing pockets of Sydney’s north-west, it had 280 students. In less than a decade, the public school has become the state’s largest.
With almost 2100 kindergarten to year 6 pupils, Riverbank has – for the first time – eclipsed Castle Hill High and Cherrybrook Technology High in the size of student population.
Riverbank Public School in the north-west suburb of The Ponds is now the biggest public school in NSW with almost 2100 students.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Despite an influx of about 250 new children starting each year, principal Jeanie Brown is unfazed by the ballooning student numbers.
“We are the same school in our ethos from when we opened in 2015,” she said. “We set high expectations, and invite parents into the classroom regularly to see where students are at.”
The latest school enrolment data reveals Riverbank Public, in the north-west suburb of The Ponds, has hit 2074 students, just ahead of high-performing schools Castle Hill High with 2049 students, and Cherrybrook Technology High with 2044 students.
But across the state, the schools with the largest student numbers are concentrated in the independent sector: Knox Grammar in Wahroonga and Malek Fahd Islamic School in Greenacre – both kindergarten to year 12 schools – have topped 3100 students each, followed closely by Barker College, Pymble Ladies College and Trinity Grammar School.
With parents increasingly opting for private education, enrolment growth in the independent sector has soared. In the past decade, private schools in NSW added 45,105 students, while public schools taught 38,794 more children and Catholic schools had 10,659 additional students.
Religious schools are booming, including Oran Park Anglican College, which increased from 70 pupils in 2013 to more than 900 students last year.
But with more families moving into suburbs in the north-west and south-west growth corridors, many schools in those areas are surging beyond their enrolment cap and pushing the limits of infrastructure and permanent classrooms.
Riverbank, which shares a site with The Ponds High School, has 52 demountables and is more than 1000 students over its enrolment cap. Castle Hill High has 51 demountables, while at Carlingford West Public, another top-performing school with almost 2000 students, has 81 demountables.
Brown said soaring student numbers – and demountable classrooms – hasn’t hindered the school from achieving above-average NAPLAN results.
“We use data analysis every five weeks which allows us to know every student. It helps us know what students can and cannot do and what teachers need to do to help students progress,” she said.
“We also focus heavily on the relationships between teachers, students and parents.”
According to a Herald analysis, Riverbank Public is ranked in the top 120 schools in NSW for year 5 NAPLAN results. The school’s average results are above or well above average in writing, spelling, numeracy and grammar when compared with pupils of similar socio-educational backgrounds.
In 2017, the school’s results were below average for every domain in year 3 apart from spelling.
Brown said while there were “potential logistical challenges” attached with managing a large and rapidly growing school community, “nothing is insurmountable”.
“My students are respectful, know the importance of building relationships and learn the importance of owning their behaviour,” she said.
A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education said that in determining the future demand, consideration was given to the current and future level of demand for primary schools, which translated to future high school demand.
“We are currently reviewing enrolment projection numbers to 2031, to also factor in the long-term implications of the pandemic and international border closures,” the spokesperson said.
Across public schools, there are about 5074 teaching-space demountables.
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