Greenwich builds high school momentum
- Author:
- Peter Hackney
- Posted:
- Thursday, 24 January 2013
The campaign to build a comprehensive public high school in Inner Sydney is gaining ground, with state Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich starting a petition for a new high school, to be presented to NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli.
Mr Greenwich has made the petition available on his website – www.alexgreenwich.com – and in his electorate office at 58 Oxford St, Paddington with the aim of collecting at least 500 signatures.
Ministers are required to lodge a response to a petition which 500 or more people have signed, within 35 calendar days of the petition being presented. The Minister’s response is then tabled in Parliament and published online.
Mr Greenwich said he hoped the petition would trigger a positive response to an escalating problem.
“Parents have told me about inner city students spending more than an hour getting to school, which you might expect in rural areas where there are long distances,” said Mr Greenwich.
“Those with cars have to add to traffic congestion to get their kids to school.
“The future looks worse as most of the public high schools are full or nearly full, so students will be packed into overfull classes or temporary classrooms, or have to travel even further.”
Mr Greenwich’s initiative was enthusiastically welcomed by CLOSE – Community for Local Option for Secondary Education – which hailed the budding politician for leading the charge for a comprehensive public high school in Inner Sydney.
“There’s a desperate need for this high school because kids from Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst are being forced to travel to Balmain to go to school – or their parents have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to send them to a private school,” said CLOSE co-director Skye Molyneux.
“Alex Greenwich has taken a great interest in this issue and campaigned on it since before he was elected to Parliament.
“It’s great to see a politician follow up on their campaign promises so proactively – it really restores your faith in politics.”
Ms Molyneux said there were a number of options available to the Education Department, including opening up the Cleveland St Intensive English High School to general students, or changing the admission criteria for Sydney Boys’ and Sydney Girls’ High Schools, which are currently reserved for academic high achievers.
On the Intensive English High School, Ms Molyneux said: “We support the Intensive English High School and think it’s a fantastic facility, but we can’t see any problem with our kids attending school alongside international students.
“In fact, it would be a great way of fostering diversity and understanding between cultures,” she said.
A spokesperson for the NSW Education Department said a “working group” was currently exploring various options and would report its findings “in due course”.
Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich
Like this article? Register as a subscriber here. It's free! We'll keep you up to date with new stories on the site.
January 24th, 2013 @ 12:31 pm
There is a perfectly good high school in Alexandria (Alexandria Park Community School K-12) complete with opportunity and selective classes, a comprehensive curriculum, strong ties to the local community and businesses and priorities in Aboriginal and gifted education. It also has excellent bus (4 options plus school specials) and train access (Redfern Station is only 10 min walk). Currently, it is at 50% capacity which means there is plenty of room for students from inner city areas. It is hard to justify, in this current climate of severe budget cuts in education, the creation of a new secondary facility when one currently exists that is fully functioning and ready to receive more students. There is no conceivable reason for not going to Alexandria Park except that these parents don’t want their children mixing with, what they perceive as, children from the working class areas of Waterloo and Redfern. They are contributing to the widening divide in the inner city between the have’s and the have not’s. Shame on their prejudice and ignorance.
January 24th, 2013 @ 6:33 pm
What a load of nonsense this promo-article is.
There is no teacher shortage, not classroom shortage, no funds and no land to build a massive new school.
State Governemnt knows this and will not be building any such school/s.
Gay MP, Mr Greenwich, was educated at elite Sydney Grammmar and is now making a flawed plea to appeal to young mums and dads in his electorate.
He is trying to cast himself as some sort of point of difference for new voters.
Peter Hackney should start writing articles with some analysis rather than just re-issuing blurbs from a local member desperately trying to make some headway before the next state elections in 18 months.
Mr Hackney’s pro-Clover Moore/pro-Greenwich gay bias is well known from his days on SX gay magazine.
This not what a so-called “independent” paper should be printing.
coments end
January 24th, 2013 @ 9:03 pm
Yes, it’s really practical to have students from Woolloomooloo, Millers Point, Potts Point and Paddington going to school in Alexandria – NOT!! Alexandria is about 6 kilometres away from these places. And many people in the ‘Loo and Millers Pt are hardly wealthy, there are lots of “have nots” in these areas.
January 29th, 2013 @ 10:46 am
Why does Matthew Boulton keep going on people’s sexuality as if that has any relevance whatsoever? Where is your “analysis” Mr Boulton beyond snide remarks about people’s sexuality and cheap pot shots from the sidelines?
February 1st, 2013 @ 12:58 pm
My comments are not related to sex: they’re about journalistic integrity and group gender bias, Ms Seeger.
They are not the prime focus of my concerns.