Sydenham MP Natalie Hutchins is attempting to have the catchment zone for the new Taylors Hill West secondary college released early to give parents more time to plan for the 2018 school year.
The Department of Education and Training has signalled the new school, provisionally called Taylors Hill West secondary college until a name is announced, would begin accepting enrolments for years 7 and 10 from parents within the “designated neighbourhood area” in September. The first cohort of about 300 students will start in term one next year.
Ms Hutchins said she was working towards having the school’s catchment zone released earlier than term three to give families more time to enrol their child.
The new school’s catchment zone is likely to affect the intake of other neighbouring schools.
Ms Hutchins said some parents could be disappointed because they don’t live within the new school’s designated zone.
“Our biggest challenge now is to meet the demand that is already there in the feeder schools such as Springside P-9, Brookside P-9 and Creekside K-9 colleges,” she said.
“I think there’s an expectation that a lot of the kids from Springside will have automatic entry into the new school, but that’s not necessarily the case because the department of education looks at what your home address is, rather than what school you’ve come from.
“Traditionally the department doesn’t release that until term three for any school …we’re trying to say we’ve got a unique situation in that we have three local schools that go from prep to year 9 and for the kids going into year 10, it’s a real challenge.
“We’re trying to get it brought forward so parents can have a little bit of certainty about where their kids are going for year 7 and year 10,” Ms Hutchins said.
A department of education spokeswoman told
Star Weekly the designated neighbourhood boundary was currently being reviewed.
“It will be released once approved,” she said.
