By Emma Xerri
With her eldest child now in grade five at Timbarra P-9 College, longtime Timbarra resident Meagan McPhee is faced with the difficult task of selecting a secondary school, a task she believes has been made more difficult due to the current limitations at Timbarra.
“The thought of having to change schools for the last three years of school is stress that families and students don’t need, especially if, like my kids, they’ve been at the school since prep,” she said.
“The end of year nine is also a really delicate point to have to assimilate to a new school.”
Having lived in the area since 2010, a great portion of which has been spent volunteering on the school fundraising committee, Ms McPhee is keenly aware of the impact the school’s current setup is having, not only on the educational prospects of her own children, but on many others throughout her community.
Deciding to try and take matters into her own hands, Ms McPhee has started a petition via change.org to advocate for an extension of the school from P-9 to year 12.
Despite being live for less than two weeks, the petition has already garnered significant community support – with more than 460 signatures as of Monday 29 April – indicating that, as the area’s population continues to grow, and strict school zoning increasingly dictates which schools families can access for their children, the need for another complete and affordable secondary school in Timbarra is greater than ever.
“Now that my eldest is in grade five, I’m looking at high schools and realising that the options that should be there just aren’t,” she added.
“Berwick is such a great growth area with fantastic facilities, and I have always thought that as long as I’ve lived here. But now that I’ve come to look at high schools, I’ve realised there is a gap, and everyone I’ve spoken to feels the same way.
“I would like to be able to send my children to a school that runs through to year 12, but I have found the other options in Berwick a bit disheartening.
“There are issues with overcrowding, and the new strict zones mean schools are forced to accept every student that lives within their zone, whether they can accommodate it or not.
“If you don’t live within that strict pocket, you essentially cannot get a place at those schools.
“I have spoken to a lot of parents that have kids across different local high schools, and that seems to be a consensus.
“I have also looked into private education, which comes with added travel that my kids don’t have at Timbarra, where they can ride their bikes or walk to school. Private school fees are also very exorbitant.
“Of course, not every high school is going to fit every student. There are some students that will go into huge local public high schools after being in a small community school like Timbarra and be fine, but there are also a lot of people who fear they will have to pay for private education to accommodate their childrens’ needs, which is a huge stress on families.
“We need good education opinions, because not everyone can afford private education. And even if you can afford private education, the waiting lists are years long.”
According to the Department of Education, students who reside in the Timbarra P-9 College zone are zoned to either Berwick Secondary College, Fountain Gate Secondary College, Kambrya College or Narre Warren South P-12 to complete their senior secondary education.
While these options are limited, the department maintains that “there are currently no plans to expand Timbarra College from a P-9 college.”
But Ms McPhee wants to stress that this is not a new issue, but rather “these are new times.”
The issue of the school’s extension has been vocalised in parliament since as early as 2000, when the then MInister for Education was asked to reconsider the decision made by her department to sell the land that was set aside in the Timbarra community for a secondary college.
And again in 2006, when Member for La Trobe Hon Jason Wood MP said in a house debate that “many families moved into Timbarra under the expectation that there would be a local primary school and a local secondary school beside it.”
“Unfortunately, now the state government have reneged on their promise to local residents and we are no longer going to see a secondary school,” he added.
“As one could easily imagine, residents in this area are very unhappy about this state of affairs, and a number of constituents have contacted me to voice their displeasure.
“As these constituents have pointed out, with no other government school in the vicinity, children must go to private or Catholic schools or travel to the other side of Berwick across the highway.”
With the issue having appeared before parliament on several occasions, Ms McPhee remains “unsure why and how the decision continues to be to not extend the school, because it is clearly needed.”
“Residents of Timbarra have been campaigning and protesting for over 20 years now to make this happen, so I think it’s time now,” she said.
“Timbarra has had a recent change in leadership, so the hope is that the new leadership team will have new ideas and a view that recognises that they need more secondary places, and help actually make it happen.
“From what I understand, the school is well aware of the stress facing their year nine students to find suitable high school places after year nine. They are all very lovely staff and a very lovely school and they are obviously wanting the best for their students, which I firmly believe comes with extending the school and allowing kids to do their whole education at Timbarra.
“The decision has to come from the Department of Education and the state government, but cooperation with the school will be a huge advantage if those decision makers decide the school can extend.”
