ATWELL COLLEGE AND
HAMMOND PARK SECONDARY COLLEGE — CATCHMENT AREAS
765. Hon SIMON O'BRIEN to the Minister for Education
and Training:
I refer to the ongoing issue of the
future catchment areas of the Atwell and Hammond Park high schools, which is
fundamentally about whether the respective catchments will span the Kwinana Freeway.
Has this matter now been settled or has the minister asked the Department of
Education to review its position?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
the question.
At my request, a community forum
was conducted by the Department of Education for local communities in July,
maybe three or four weeks ago. At that meeting, departmental officers explained
the setting of local intake areas for the new school, including the
difficulties of the border, if you like, of part of the catchment areas
effectively being the freeway, and the difficulties of changing that and the
impact on potential catchment areas. Whenever the catchment area of one school
is changed, there is a flow-on effect for other schools. Therefore, the
department's decision stands—that is, to proceed with the
catchment areas that were originally designed. The point of the forum was to
give people an opportunity to understand why the department had made that
decision. I understand that the forum was cordial and successful, and that
people appreciated the opportunity to understand the reasoning for the
decision. I am sure some people will probably still prefer that the decision
was otherwise, but the decision on the catchment areas remains.