“The department acknowledges the capacity pressures faced by Indooroopilly State High School,” he said.
“There have been no changes to the school EMP,however a key component of the response to capacity issues has been that the school is strictly limiting ineligible outside-of-catchment students for the commencement of the 2024 school year.
“The department will develop both short and long-term infrastructure and non-infrastructure responses to ensure Indooroopilly State High School has the facilities to service its in-catchment student population in the short,medium and long term.”
Figures released under Right to Information laws reveal about half of new out-of-catchment enrolments accepted from March 2021 to the end of February 2022 were for its Programs of Excellence –103 students out of 214 in total.
Other reasons for out-of-catchment entry included having a sibling at the school (59 students),special circumstances (two students),and the special education program (five students),while six children had parents or guardians working at the school.
In an answer to a question on notice tabled in parliament,Education Minister Grace Grace said six hire buildings were delivered to the school in March,boosting its built capacity from 2602 to 2761.
There are two different “capacity” figures,which come down to departmental definitions.
“Student enrolment capacity” is the students a school can accommodate within existing learning spaces,acknowledging learning spaces may not be used to maximum capacity across the day,whereas “built capacity” is the maximum target capacity of all general and specialist classrooms.
Greens MP for Maiwar Michael Berkman said he was concerned the government’s focus on enrolment management would hinder access to excellence programs,language immersion and specialised support for children with specific needs.
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“We expected changes were coming to deal with overcrowding,but the news about strictly refusing non-catchment enrolments from 2024 was really sudden,and the communication from the department has been pretty poor.”
Berkman said strictly enforcing catchments would not be enough to alleviate overcrowding.
“Overcrowding at inner-west schools has meant valuable spaces like the music room,computer lab or the student support space have been used as classrooms instead,” he said.