Boom in school student numbers

ENROLMENTS at 15 public schools on the Gold Coast have risen by a third in five years.

The Queensland Education Department’s latest data reveals enrolments at 11 Gold Coast schools have jumped by more than 34 per cent in the past five years, and four schools grew by 53 per cent or more.

Topping the list was Pimpama State Primary College which had a 197 per cent increase in enrolments since 2016 from 276 students to 819 in 2021.

The school opened in the northern growth corridor in 2015 to ease the burden on Pimpama State School, one of the area’s oldest schools which opened in 1872.

It too has recorded massive growth in five years, increasing its enrolments by 44 per cent to 845 students.

Pimpama State Secondary College posted a 64 per cent rise in the past five years.

Pacific Pines State High School experienced 42 per cent growth. It now has 1970 students – up from 1393 in 2016.

Palm Beach State School had 9 per cent more students in one year, and 61 per cent in five years.

The beachside school ballooned from 471 students in 2016 to 756 this year.

Springbrook (30 per cent) and Numinbah Valley (20 per cent) state schools had the largest one-year growth on the Gold Coast.

Other schools in the northern growth corridor experiencing rapid growth were Ormeau Woods State High School (up 46 per cent in five years) and Woongoolba State School in Jacobs Well (up 9 per cent in the past year and 53 per cent since 2016) to 257 students.

The Queensland Academies Health Sciences Campus, for highly capable students in Years 10 to 12, recorded a 4 per cent increase in enrolments in the past year and in five years the school has grown by 38 per cent from 321 to 443.

Tallebudgera Valley’s Ingleside State School, 15 minutes from Burleigh Heads, has posted a 16 per cent rise in enrolments since 2020 and in the past five years the roll has grown from 95 to 129.

Sports-focused Keebra State High School, in Southport has increased 34 per cent since 2016, with 1006 students now in attendance, while Broadbeach State School has 1117 students, that’s an extra 293 students in five years, or a 36 per cent increase.

But some schools also experienced significant falls during the past year.

Enrolments were down by 9 per cent at Norfolk Village State School, 7 per cent at Helensvale State High School, and 6 per cent at Coomera Springs State School and Norfolk Village State School.

However, it’s likely this is due to schools opening in 2020, including Gainsborough State School in Pimpama.