‘Can we have more children, please?’ The $5.4 million school renovation sitting half-empty

1 hour ago 1

An eastern suburbs public primary school says new classrooms, built as part of a $5.4 million upgrade, are sitting half-empty because the state government refuses to move its rigid local enrolment zones.

The number of children at Chatham Primary in Surrey Hills has been plunging for years while neighbouring schools are “bursting at the seams”, according to the Chatham school community.

Chatham Primary School Council president Caroline Kennon with the school’s parents club president Pamela Nasiakos, and Caroline’s children August and Clementine.

Chatham expects 235 students, including just 23 preps, in 2026. That’s 13 per cent fewer overall students than in 2022.

But school council president Caroline Kennon says that after a recent $5.4 million upgrade, Chatham could easily accommodate 450 youngsters.

That would ease the enrolment pressure off nearby schools like Mont Albert, Canterbury and Surrey Hills Primary, whose enrolment zones dwarf Chatham’s, and whose numbers are climbing every year.

Kennon said the upgrade had delivered four new state-of-the-art classrooms, a “huge” new library, a new building for senior primary students and other upgraded facilities.

“We’ve got all these beautiful new buildings,” Kennon said. “They’ve invested all this money, and we keep asking, ‘can we have more children, please?’”

“Funding is tied to enrolments, particularly the foundation [prep] students.

“This is a cyclical issue, we can’t grow without students. Our NAPLAN results are great, our grounds and buildings are renovated, we have an incredible community.”

In response to a push last year by local state MP and now leader of the opposition Jess Wilson for the area to be rezoned, Education Minister Ben Carroll said the falling enrolments at Chatham were being driven by the demographics of the neighbourhood.

Carroll said the number of primary school-aged children in Surrey Hills had fallen by 20 per cent since 2020 but was expected to stabilise. The minister also pointed out that Chatham was free to accept children from outside its zone boundaries.

But Kennon said on Saturday that attracting out-of-zone enrolments was difficult and Chatham’s efforts to spread the word among parents in nearby school zones had been met with limited success.

“Schools aren’t set up to be marketing themselves, not government schools anyway,” she said.

The school council president said the government’s push for families to stay within their school zones was an extra headwind for Chatham’s desire for growth.

Kennon said the government’s push for families to stay within their school zones was an extra headwind for Chatham’s desire for growth.

“We’ve seen the changes to the enrolment process, definitely that wording is stronger, that ‘this is your assigned school where you should go ... we encourage you go to your zone’,” Kennon said.

“That’s against us, too.”

A Department of Eduction spokesman said keeping school zone boundaries consistent was the fair thing to do.

“We minimise changes to school zones to provide communities with consistency and ensure equity for families considering local enrolment options for their children,” he said.

“Families can apply for enrolment at any government school, including those outside of their local school zone.”