Parents’ fury at school switch
RESIDENTS who bought at a luxury northern Gold Coast housing estate are in shock after learning their children cannot attend their preferred state school at Helensvale.
Bonney MP Sam O’Connor and area councillor William Owen-Jones have intervened to attempt to get a school boundary review after parents at The Surrounds were forced to cross the Pacific Motorway to take their children to Pacific Pines State High School.
A resident on Mr O’Connor’s Facebook page wrote: “We were in shock. The distance from The Surrounds to Helensvale versus Pac Pines is 200 metres.”
Other residents said they had purchased homes in the luxury estate east of Westfield Helensvale because their children had been promised to be part of schooling in the Helensvale community.
Mr O’Connor has written to Education Minister Grace Grace after the 2019 Secondary School catchment map showed the boundaries had changed and the estate was now in the Pacific Pines area.
“These parents have made a significant life choice to enable their children to attend a high school which they see as ‘the best fit’ for their children as individuals. They have expressed great disappointment in being penalised for their forward planning,” he said.
Other property owners near The Surrounds were no longer in the high school catchment either despite their homes being in the Helensvale primary school catchment.
The developer of The Surrounds had worked hard to create a “vibrant Helensvale community”.
“They have even partnered with Helensvale State High on programs within the school. It seems illogical to exclude these residents from the Helensvale State High catchment,” Mr O’Connor said.
A recent report in the Bulletin revealed residents at The Surrounds and nearby estates were furious with the Government on the separate issue of the Coomera Connector and were campaigning to protect green space in their suburb.
A response by Education Minister Grace Grace to a letter from Mr O’Connor suggested residents will now face another long campaign to change school boundaries.
The Queensland Government Statistician’s Office analysed the shortest direct trafficable return route between individual land parcels and the main entrance points of the surrounding schools to create the catchment boundary, Ms Grace said.
“Catchment areas are not fixed or static. The review of catchment areas undertaken in 2018 resulted in changes to a number of schools across the state, including Helensvale State High School,” she said.
The boundaries will remain in place until the next annual review which is undertaken in the first half of this year.
“With regard to your request to reconsider the catchment boundaries ... consultation has occurred with the principals of Helensvale State High School and Pacific Pines State High School,” Ms Grace said. “The principals confirmed that a change to the boundaries is not required at this stage.”