The number of school developments have exploded on the Northern Beaches, with public and private schools racing to cater for increasing demand. Peninsula Living Pittwater investigates.
It may be hard to believe, but more than $300 million will be spent on developments at schools on the Northern Beaches in the next few years.
Schools are attempting to revitalise their buildings or completely refit them for a 21st century settings, as the children of the baby-boom years of 2005 to 2012 now enter their primary or secondary schooling. Statistics from the NSW Department of Education show that the number of births across New South Wales peaked in 2012 at around 100,000, and kindergarten enrolments peaked six years later in 2018.
This has resulted in strong enrolment in public secondary high schools. In Pittwater, enrolments have increased by 270 students in the last five years, from 2,594 in 2018 to 2,864 in 2022.
In the Northern Beaches, enrolments have gone up by 634, from 9,290 in 2018 to 10,195 in 2022. Manly Warringah saw the biggest increase of 905, from 6,697 in 2018 to 7,331 in 2022.
There is no doubt demand is high in the public sector, with resultant major upgrades for ageing facilities. Mona Vale Public School’s $53 million facelift was completed in April, with a performance space added to the new classrooms, which will have shared use with the community.
The relocation of Frenchs Forest High School to Allambie Heights will result in a new $112.5 million campus and add an extra 700 places at the new Forest High School. The campus will be sprawled over 4.5 hectares with a sporting field and six outdoor courts. While the school has to be relocated to make way for the creation of Frenchs Forest as a ‘strategic centre,’ with 5,360 additional houses and 2,300 jobs, this is clearly planning for the future.
“Creation of a new school campus also represents an opportunity to create new facilities better designed for contemporary learning and development,” the environmental impact statement says. The development is still before Infrastructure NSW for approval, but given planning is well-advanced (community consultations closed in December last year), and the main works construction contract will soon be issued, it seems only a matter of time before the first concrete will be poured.
St Luke’s Grammar School in Dee Why is also thinking ahead, with a $76.3 million expansion over 30,600 square metres approved in April by Infrastructure NSW. Unlike The Forest High School, the school is moving away from the need for green spaces and will revamp the old Wormald Building on Pittwater Road, currently home to Officeworks, as part of the three-stage development. The expansion will create a senior campus for years 10 to 12 and increase numbers by around 600 places. The schools currently caters for kindergarten to year 12 on two sites.
Principal Geoff Lancaster says the school has been planning the expansion for over a decade, having bought the Officeworks site in 2013.
“We have very strong demand for enrolments and we’re trying to meet that demand,” he says.
Members of the school executive recently visited schools in Melbourne and co-working spaces to help it ‘tweak’ approved plans to best suit the changing needs of the school. “My vision for the space is that would be somewhere between a school and university experience for our students,” Mr Lancaster said.
St Luke’s principal Geoff Lancaster wants the new senior campus to be ‘in between a school and university’.
While the details are yet to be finalised, Mr Lancaster said: “Maybe entrepreneurs in residence, those sorts of things happening at the school to make it a little bit different to what students usually expect in their senior school experience.”
It is envisaged that about 300 students could start at the Pittwater Road site from 2027, with the final stage set to be operational in 2031. Mr Lancaster is acutely aware of the school being a prominent site at 800 Pittwater Road, known as the ‘gateway to the Beaches,’ and says it will ‘be a much more aesthetically pleasing once the school’s there with good landscaping’.
Another kindergarten to year 12 school which is prioritising the future is Northern Beaches Christian School (NBCS) in Terrey Hills. The school has almost completed a major revamp which will place STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) firmly at the centre of learning. The school has demolished older science laboratories and describes its forthcoming STEM Centre as the ‘centrepiece’ of the school.
Principal Tim Watson said a deep grounding in STEM would equip students as learners ready for an unknown future.
The NBCS’s STEM Centre will be the ‘centrepiece’ of the school.
“When people speak of 21st century skills, it is a misnomer. Our vision, ‘Love Learning,’ exists specifically to equip our students for an uncertain future. Because we believe that the only way we can make sense of the future is as learners. We value learning as the ability to make sense of the world.
“The STEM centre will enable us to deliver learning that captures the imagination of students to experiment and explore design, technology and science.”
The school has already revamped 40 classrooms and constructed a new primary playground, with the STEM Centre to be complete by mid-2024.
While NBCS, St Luke’s and The Forest High have the advantage of space to grow, several other schools are trying to expand into surrounding residential suburbs, to the dismay of nearby residents. St Augustine’s in Brookvale and Stella Maris in Manly are in the process of getting development applications through Northern Beaches Council which would increase their enrolment numbers by putting buildings next to residential homes. Mater Maria College in Warriewood has also upset neighbours with its plan to increase enrolments by 30 per cent.
Tim Watson, Principal of Northern Beaches Christian School.
In the meantime, schools like Reddam House, based in the eastern suburbs, are eyeing free land on the Northern Beaches to build a new campus. Owners Inspired Education (IE) are open about seeking more opportunities for expansion, with a development application lodged earlier this year for a campus in a high rise building in the North Sydney CBD which would not have any green space.
An IE spokesman said its Woollhara and Bondi campuses were at capacity, with ‘demand surge to five times the number of students we are able to accept for Year 7 in 2024’.
“There are also a large number on our waiting list across the school who live on the north side of the Sydney Harbour Bridgem and would relish the opportunity to get their children into a Reddam school closer to home,” he said.
The spokesman said IE looked at a ‘wide range of demographic factors and research when evaluating potential areas for expansion’. “We are looking for areas where there is strong demand for what Reddam House offers across year levels.”
There is no doubt that on the Beaches, any extra capacity would be well received.