To help ease the pressure on existing education facilities in Chatswood, a new primary school is being planned in the area.
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Around $3.7 million will be allocated on early planning for a new primary school in Chatswood and though there’s no confirmation yet, there’s a likelihood that the new school’s location will be on the soon to be vacated lot on the corner of the Pacific Highway and Mowbray Road.
The subject site was once the location of an electricity depot that is now a tunnelling dive site for the Chatswood to Sydenham Metro. The site is due to become available by 2024, but the Department of Education confirmed earlier that a feasibility study has been launched into acquiring the dive site.
This project is part of a $7.9 billion investment in extra classrooms to keep up with New South Wales’ growing population.
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Chatswood Public School’s enrolment cap is only 740 but the actual enrolment in 2021 has reached 1,219 — enrolling over 400 more students than recommended. The same dilemma happens to Chatswood High School, where the cap is 1,200 but the actual enrolment this year reached 1,605, exceeding its enrolment cap by 405.
Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell said high growth areas are seeing more investment than ever before, with Western Sydney alone seeing $2 billion investment and over $1 billion in growing regional areas over four years.
“This investment takes our historic school building program to new heights with $7.9 billion being spent over the next four years on top of the $7 billion already invested since 2017,” Ms Mitchell said.
In 2020, the NSW government announced its plans to upgrade both Chatswood Public School and Chatswood High School, which includes more than 150 new and refurbished teaching spaces from Kindergarten to Year 12.
Here’s a flythrough video of these upgrades:
Aside from a primary school in Chatswood, the State Budget allocated $3.7 million towards initial plans for an education precinct in St Leonards whilst $16 million has been allotted for the Macquarie Park Education Precinct, which would include both a primary school and a high school on the site of the old Peter Board High School.