Taradale Primary School’s growth from small school to almost 100 students

When Chris Burgess started working as principal at Taradale Primary School there were just two students. Now, there are almost 100. This is how the change happened.

Taradale Primary School principal Chris Burgess has overseen a dramatic rise in enrolments since he arrived at the school in 2012. From an initial enrolment of two, the school now has 93 pupils. Picture: Zoe Phillips

ON HIS first day as principal at Taradale Primary School Chris Burgess welcomed just two students through the door of his classroom.

Last week, now entering his 10th year in the role, there are almost 100 students enrolled at the school.

It has, Chris says, been “a bit of a journey”.

“Things I tend to notice is the kids and the parents interacting with each other, and thinking, these people might not ever have met each other if the school wasn’t here,” he says. “That flow-on links in the community — it is an engaged community, people knowing each other, doing things together, supporting each other.”

Asked what helped turn around the school’s fortunes, Chris says his answer is “community engagement”. And tree-changers, in particular from Melbourne’s inner north and northeast, and a changing demographic have been a big part of the equation.

“The demographic of this town itself and the surrounding areas has very much changed from an older, retired community to younger families with children,” says Chris. “At the school ... I think there are about two intergenerational local families. Everyone else … all people who have moved into the area.

“A lot of it’s lifestyle change.”

The first question Chris had to ask when he started was whether the school was viable.

Taradale sits on the Calder Highway, southeast of Castlemaine and only about 105km from Melbourne. It had potential, Chris says, and while there were “generally older people in the town” when he moved there the demographic was starting to shift and more people were moving there from Melbourne.

Also, importantly, the community wanted to keep the school open.

So then, how to convince people to send their kids to a school with two pupils, and change the perception it was rundown? The school started a playgroup, opened up classrooms for use for community meetings, and ran visits to, and did joint excursions with, other small schools.

Meanwhile Chris, who had experience teaching at a school with a high refugee and asylum seeker population, told the community the school would focus on hands-on learning.

Slowly the numbers climbed. Six enrolments at the start of 2013; 14 in 2015; 32 in 2017; 82 in 2019. This year there are currently 93 — it has reached the point where some potential enrolments from outside the school’s zone have been declined this year and last.

Taradale is not alone in being a small school experiencing growth. One of the small schools near Castlemaine that Taradale had partnered with for excursions has had its own growth spurt.

In 2013 Chewton Primary School had 28 students enrolled, but that had grown to 80 by 2018. The number has “come down a little bit with zoning to about 65 this year”, says principal Bernadette McKenna.

Bernadette, now in her second year at the school, says the school’s focus on sustainability, inclusion, community, Indigenous perspectives, the “beautiful bush environment”, inquiry-based approach to learning and the fact it was a small school, so smaller class sizes, all contributed to the boost for the school.

“There is growth (in population) through Castlemaine and Chewton as well … but because there are quite a few schools in Castlemaine there is lots of space for kids as well, and a lot of the growth has been for slightly older people as well in the area,” she says.

And while post-COVID the school had not experienced huge growth, it is a factor Bernadette is interested to watch out for.

“We’ve got a few new families that have come up since COVID this year and so we are interested to see if we get more in the next few months as a result of that,” she says.

“There is steady growth out here in this area because people can still commute to Melbourne so we are just interested to see what will happen in the next few years, with whether there is that growth of people being able to work from home.”

Further out west near the Grampians, it is tourism that has played a roll in the growth at Halls Gap Primary School, says principal Jar-San Trimble.

In 2013, the year Jar-San started in that role, there were 27 students enrolled, but by the start of the following year it had dipped to 18.

This year there are 44 students enrolled, but the number has reached as high as 57 in her time at the school, she says.

“The changing face of Halls Gap has had a lot to do with that, because tourism has grown amazingly there,” says Jar-San, who is currently acting principal at Stawell West.

“It brings with it the need for more people to work in businesses, and we’ve just been lucky enough that people have come into businesses and they’ve had families.”

Access to accommodation can present a “challenge” in Halls Gap, she says, because “there are so many houses that are holiday rentals”.

“There is a lot of housing there, but there is not always housing for people to just up and move in,” she says. “That is probably keeping the numbers at the school fairly limited because if you’re moving with a family, you’re looking for accommodation for four or five people. It’s tricky.”

Back at Taradale, this year’s enrolments include 14 preps and 12 in Grade 6 — four of those have been at the school since prep.

Last year, for the first time since 2011, the school farewelled graduating Grade 6 students who had completed all their primary education with the school.

“When doing our end of year speeches and things last year that was a bit emotional for me and those kids,” Chris says. “I was their teacher when they started in prep.

“They were sharing their memories of what that was like, to have been there through the growth of the school.”

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