Why Brisbane parents are enrolling their kids at high schools from birth

Andrew Mitchell’s daughter is in year 4, but he says it’s already time for his family to call “action stations” for her high school pathway.

“I have my daughter on one or two waiting lists, and they’ve just emailed me and said you’re still on the waiting list, while some other people have got interviews to set them up,” he said.

“Everything is oversubscribed so much … even getting kids into kindergartens or daycare, you’ve got to enrol them before you’re even thinking about having children.”

Mitchell and his wife were also considering public options, but living near Kelvin Grove, he said the state high school landscape had significantly changed since they first looked at high schools for their two children.

“You go, ‘Oh, that was a great school – that was a great school 10, 15 years ago because of the group of teachers that were there, [or] the principal that was there’,” he said.

Ashgrove parent Anna Marsden also said staffing was an important factor when making the final call on a school.

“If you put a child down when they’re born, by the time that kid goes to school, that won’t be the same principal, so schools can change and shift,” she said.

Marsden placed her two daughters on waiting lists for two schools – St Peters Lutheran College and Brisbane Girls Grammar School – which means the sisters now attend different schools.

While she put the girls on St Peters’ list when the youngest was two, Marsden said she signed them up for BGGS even earlier.

“I filled out the paperwork to enrol them when I was in the birthing suite,” she said.

“I didn’t do it because it was my life’s dream to go to Grammar, I just knew it was a tough school to get into.

“[It was] also because you have a bit of time in the maternity ward afterwards – you’ve got a week there – and I sort of just went, ‘oh, let’s do it now’, so I did it online, and off we went.”

Marsden said the waiting lists at Brisbane’s two Grammar schools were most frequently cited as being so long, early action was needed. However, she noticed that, increasingly, other schools were also requiring parents to sign up sooner.

The co-educational and independent Hillbrook Anglican School and Cannon Hill Anglican College both have ballooning enrolment lists, with the latter requiring year 7 applications to be made nine years out.

A survey carried out last August by sector advocacy group Independent Schools Queensland found two-thirds of parents with children currently at an independent school began looking in earnest at least two years in advance.

One in four parents surveyed said they started looking before their child was born.

The data – which relied on responses from more than 1000 Queensland families – also revealed 80 per cent of parents placed their child on at least one waiting list.

Amanda Watt, the executive director of sister organisation Queensland Independent Schools Parents Network, said families exploring private schooling generally spent “significant time” speaking to other parents and attending open days to affirm their choice.

“Some families with strong family or community ties to a school make decisions very early, sometimes before their child starts school,” she said.

“At the same time, we’re seeing a growing trend towards parents waiting to better understand their child’s strengths, interests and needs before making a final decision.”

Mitchell said the final decision for a school needed to be based on what each of his children needed the most – including co-educational or single-sex environments, their interests and strengths, and the group of students they would be learning with – which was not always obvious years in advance.

“It’s really difficult to know whether you put down the money [for an enrolment application] just to give options, and it’s nice to sort of have options, but obviously, it’s that investment, isn’t it?” he said.

Even in the state sector, Mitchell said in-demand high schools often came coupled with premium in-catchment property prices.

Watt said every family had a different approach to selecting a school, with many also being “well-served” by local state schools.

Tricia Richardson said living on the same street as Kenmore State High School, where she was a student, she never considered other options for her children.

“I know it’s a good school, I enjoyed it, so that was an easy decision for us,” she said.

“I have no desire to work purely to put my children into private school.”

Across Brisbane, private schools require parents to pay an application fee – often said to cover administration costs –averaging about $240 per child, although at lower-fee institutions, parents pay as little as $80.

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