CGPS New Building

Carlton Gardens Primary School is getting a new building to cater for our growing population.

Our school has been allocated a brand new two storey portable consisting of four classrooms. Each level has a withdrawal area for small group work, moveable storage, a staff office, a verandah and a set of stairs at either end, the building also has a lift. We are planning to locate the building on the western boundary of the school, where the current shelter shed and bike sheds are. Construction is likely to start this term after the site has been prepared.


Why do we need Portables?

Carlton Gardens Primary school is growing rapidly. This is in part due to the success of Melbourne City Councils strategy to improve the liveability of Melbourne; more families are staying in the city and therefore sending their children to the closest school to the city – Carlton Gardens Primary. The growth is also due to North Melbourne (Errol St), South Yarra and South Melbourne Primary schools all having a CAP* (maximum student number) which means that Docklands, Southbank and central City families have no other choices. The school has also performed very well in recent literacy tests (NAPLAN) which have been published on the MySchool website. We have great teachers and our reputation is now very attractive. People want to come to Carlton

Gardens. The school population is already beyond current building capacity, with the 2013 enrolments at 270 and we anticipate having more than 280 students for 2014.


How are we going to manage the reduced play space?

We understand that this may be an area for concern, currently we have a split lunch to ensure there are only 130-140 students playing in the yard at one time. This has been working well, and the yard actually looks quite vacant during these lunch hours. We will continue this in 2014 and add a split recess as well. We will also be adding quiet play areas to the yard by purchasing some outdoor board games. The playground will be relocated to run along the southern boundary and will replace the unused vegetable gardens. We also plan to have an indoor play space that will be used during lunch.


Answers to some questions......

Can’t we get a CAP and stop more children enrolling? The school has applied for a CAP (maximum student

number) of 300. This will be in place for enrolments in 2014 and onwards. Note that despite a CAP, government

schools are still required to accept children who live locally (where Carlton Gardens is the closest school as the crow flies) and families who are determined to come. A state school cannot legally refuse families that live within our school zone. A CAP can only inhibit not prevent enrolments.

 

Aren’t we accepting lots of kids from far away?

In the past we had accepted families from further afield as student enrolments were low. Currently our enrolments are coming from the city and we are their closest government school.


Isn’t there a new school opening in Docklands/Southbank?

The State government did announce new primary schools for Docklands/West Melbourne and Southbank/Port Melbourne. As yet, there are no committed funds for planning nor construction for either location and at best they are unlikely to be open before 2016/17. These schools will not solve the impact of population growth we

are experiencing.

 

The school has investigated options for new buildings.

However the State government has no funding for capital works in the short term. We have sought support from the Local Council and the Councillors to begin lobbying state government for additional support for our school. As soon as the school has been notified of the timeline for the building works we will let our community know. If you have any further questions regarding the new building or the works that are due to commence shortly pleasefeel free to contact me in the office.


Thank you,

Tina McDougall & School Council