Education Qld stops coastal students accessing Gympie high schools

The new policy for Gympie has a big impact on Rainbow Beach and Cooloola Coast families. Choice of public education institution is now restricted. Once again, this is another example of how government forces increase disadvantage towards rural and isolated communities.

The new changes dictate that Rainbow Beach students fall under the Tin Can Bay School catchment, and Grade 11 and 12 students feed into Gympie State High School.

To manage the increasing growth of student numbers in James Nash State High School and Gympie State High School for 2015, both high schools have been identified as requiring enrolment management plans as they lead up to 2015.

All Government Schools in Queensland who reach an enrolment capacity of 80% are required to put an enrolment management plan in place. These plans aim to ensure that enrolment growth is effectively managed and then to seek to efficiently target future facilities growth as they may be required.

The other aspect of enrolment management plans is to ensure the quality of State Schooling whilst maintaining a range of curriculum offerings across schools. Both James Nash and Gympie State High Schools have reached or exceeded this benchmark which has triggered the implementation of enrolment management plans from early next semester.

With an enrolment management plan in place each school will have identified catchment areas for students and as such each school is required to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to enrol all students who live in that catchment area and wish to attend their catchment school, before the school looks at enrolling students from the catchment area of other schools.

The history of enrolments in Gympie has shown that families choose the schooling option that suits their child best and this has resulted in a significant numbers of students being enrolled from areas outside the schools immediate catchment.

Both James Nash and Gympie High expect this will continue to be the case for Gympie but as one or other of the schools reach their enrolment capacity, families may need to ensure they enrol in the High School that is in their immediate catchment.

Each school has their catchment area maps on their websites and the rules and policies that apply across Queensland for Enrolment Management Plans. The Enrolment Management Plans make considerations to allow siblings to continue to attend the same school and each school has identified Programs of Excellence that are open for students from other catchment areas. This information is also available on the school’s websites or available from each of the schools.

Enrolment Management Plans will take effect once each of the school communities has been fully consulted and a formal plan is prepared and then finally gazetted in the Government Gazette.

The schools will have a plan in place for the remainder of this year and plans are reviewed on an annual basis. Further information is available on each of the school’s websites.

See the catchment map at http://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/maps/edmap/