By Tate Papworth
Each year primary schools across the state welcome a swag of fresh new faces.
While it’s a special time, for one Brimbank school this year it holds more significance than usual.
Ardeer Primary School is welcoming 36 prep students, the most the school has had enrolled in a decade.
Principal Graham Miller said it was a significant spike in enrolments.
“We typically have 10 to 20 preps each year, but this year it’s 36,” he said.
“It’s fantastic, we’re a small school so it’s nice to see so many new faces.”
While he’s happy to see the student population grow, Mr Miller said there was an added benefit to the spike in prep students.
“More children means more funding, which allows us to provide a better prep program and gives us a more realistic budget to work with.”
The extra funding should bolster the school’s capacity to employ more staff.
“We have a high number of students with special needs, so extra funding allows us to ensure there’s a teacher plus support staff in each classroom,” Mr Miller said.
The school undertook a significant advertising push last year, which Mr Miller credits as a major contributing factor to the spike in preps.
“We really tried to get the word out last year with doing things like a letterbox drop.
“We’re a small school, so we’re able to cater to the individual needs of children better than big schools might be able to and we’re really seeing word of mouth start to spread.”
The school’s total student population is 150, which Mr Miller hopes will continue to grow.
“We’re a progressive school with great staff and offer a really caring education for our kids.”
