School scrambles for room after accepting hundreds of kids over capacity
Indooroopilly State High School has trucked in demountable classrooms and will refuse most out-of-catchment enrolments next year as it scrambles to find room for hundreds of students it accepted above its official capacity.
Last year, the inner-west school had 2688 students enrolled but room for 2140, meaning it was at 125 per cent capacity.
Indooroopilly State High School had 2688 students enrolled in August 2022 – only 54 per cent of whom lived in the catchment area – despite having capacity for 2140 students.Credit: Dan Peled
Only about half its students lived within its local catchment zone, despite its enrolment management plan (EMP) requiring the principal to restrict out-of-catchment enrolments.
Earlier this year, principal Michael Hornby told parents the school had rapidly outgrown its built capacity and it was “highly unlikely” that out-of-catchment enrolments would be accepted in 2024.
Hornby said the school had 300 more out-of-catchment applications for the 2023 school year than it was able to accept.
“With the increasing demand on our facilities, only in-catchment enrolment applications, siblings and children of staff members will be able to enrol students into Indooroopilly in 2024,” he said in a newsletter.
The move sparked questions about how the school’s Programs of Excellence – an avenue for out-of-catchment students gifted in maths, engineering, Spanish, Chinese and music to gain entry – would operate.
In total, 43 per cent of students in the year 7 Programs of Excellence live outside the catchment.
But an Education Department spokesman said the programs would continue.
“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.
Demountables at Indooroopilly State High School in 2023.
“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.
“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.
“It has meant limited time in outdoor play areas and science labs, while demountables are constructed on kids’ play spaces.”
Growth pressures in Brisbane’s inner-west schools have been building for years, although the state government in March ditched plans for a $90 million primary school at the Toowong Bowls Club site, arguing “stabilising enrolments” meant it was not needed as soon as anticipated.
The prestigious Brisbane State High School has long battled capacity issues, with proposed solutions including a controversial expansion to the Coorparoo Secondary College in 2013 that attracted protests, a search for available land for a new inner-city school in 2018, and eventually culminated in the opening of Brisbane South State Secondary College in 2021.
Queensland Treasury Corporation advice reveals land acquisition for a new school can take 2.5 to five years, with another 1.5 years for consultation.