Rural schools: Seaspray Primary School has no enrolments for 2024

Locals in a Gippsland town are voicing concerns after learning their small primary school will not open next year.

Seaspray Primary School has been forced to make the gut-wrenching decision to shut its doors with no enrolments for next year.

Although not officially closed, the Victorian government’s confirmation it has been made “non-operational” is a body blow for the Gippsland seaside school’s long-term future.

Seaspray was among 18 schools in the state that had fewer than 10 students this year with four others being officially closed in 2023 – Elmhurst, Yaapeet, Dargo and Waaia-Yalca South.

“It’s a tragedy,” Seaspray Ratepayers’ president Kaylene Wheeler said.

“I can’t work out what has happened because they’ve had brand new playgrounds, a brand new bus to take children on excursions and pick up children to go to school.

“Everyone is really sad about it, but you can’t just snap children out of the sky.

“With the young families who have moved down here I do see a little glimmer of hope, but to get a teacher to come into a rural school these days has become really hard.”

An education department spokesman said the school council had recommended it become non-operational due to no enrolments for 2024.

“We work closely with small schools to make sure they can meet the needs of their communities and deliver a comprehensive education for local students,” the spokesman said.

Students at Seaspray Primary School in Gippsland this year.

Seaspray’s primary school has been in existence since 1927 and its highest number of students since 2008 was 26 in 2010.

But five years later they slipped to six before a minor resurgence into the teens followed by a drop to seven last year.

Gippsland South MP Danny O’Brien said he hoped the government and education department “would genuinely keep the door open for Seaspray to reopen if there are new opportunities for students and a new principal in future”.

Gippsland South MP Danny O'Brien is hoping Seaspray school can be saved from official closure. Picture: Supplied

“It’s always disappointing to lose a primary school, even if it is technically only going to a ‘non-operational’ status,” he said.

“While student numbers at the school have dropped and have been fairly low for a number of years now, I am concerned to hear parents saying that there has not been much effort by the government to secure a new principal after the current principal left.

“I hope both the government and the department will genuinely keep the door open for Seaspray to reopen if there are new opportunities for students and a new principal in future.”