Members at Marsden Park Public School will meet on the first day of term 1, 2021 to consider a campaign of political, community and industrial action if the teaching and learning needs of teachers and students in their area are not being met.
The Department of Education proposes that from the beginning of the school year, Northbourne Public School year 2–6 students will travel with their teachers each day by bus to Marsden Park Public School, where they will be accommodated in demountable classrooms. Northbourne Public School is being built in response to population growth in the area and the temporary school established on the Northbourne site cannot accommodate the school’s enrolments for 2021.
Marsden Park Public School already has more than 20 demountable classrooms on an overcrowded site. There are only three permanent classrooms. A sewage and drainage issue requires daily pump-outs, a power supply problem often requires teachers to turn off air conditioners and many classrooms have no capacity for wifi.
“The Department’s handling of school infrastructure in the area has been nothing short of shambolic,” states a motion passed unanimously by a meeting of Federation members at the school today (10 December).
“This entire situation is unsustainable and the teachers, students and families of Marsden Park and Northbourne public schools deserve better.”
Federation members are demanding that NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell intervenes to:
- appropriately meet the immediate teaching and learning needs of teachers and students on both sites when they start the new school year;
- clearly communicate the timelines for the Northbourne Public School build; and
- provide a plan to address the work health and safety issues and the urgent infrastructure needs at Marsden Park Public School.
Federation Deputy President Henry Rajendra said that, with enrolments set to increase from around 800,000 to almost one million within 20 years, and no plan to accommodate this growth this example would not be the last.