About Us
In June 2018, an apolitical group of local parents and grandparents formed the Bungendore High School Action Group. Like previous groups before us, we were concerned about the impact having no local high school had on our community and children. Our aim was to achieve bi-partisan support for a public high school in Bungendore by 2022.
​
The community overwhelmingly got behind our efforts and that is why in December 2018 we achieved a bi-partisan commitment to build a high school in Bungendore by 2023. Our role since then has been to keep the community informed and share both official and factual updates.
The State Government through the NSW Department of Education and the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) are responsible for making decisions regarding the new high school and the new related community facilities respectively.
The Case for a Bungendore High School
Our population is now large enough to support a high school
Bungendore is part of the fastest growing area in regional NSW and has seen significant population growth in recent years. There are now over 12,000 residents including 3,300 children now living in the wider region. Since 2011 the number of primary aged children in Bungendore has grown by 28 per cent and there are now almost 1,000 students in the local primary schools in Bungendore, Sutton, Tarago, Captains Flat and Gundaroo. By 2022 there will be around 1,100 children of high school age in the region, independent of any further population growth or development.
​
Having no local high school impacts on families and our community
Every day over 20 buses take our teenagers to schools outside the Bungendore region, on busy roads, without seat belts and sometimes in crowded conditions. When children reach high school age, they spend wasted hours on needless journeys. To get to the nearest high schools by direct bus, children living in Bungendore are leaving home at 7.30am in the morning. For many outside Bungendore, they are leaving much earlier. Many families leave the area to avoid the long, tiring and potentially unsafe commutes for their teenage children. Having no local high school impacts our community, including added family stress and loss of close friends.
​
Preferred high school choices are no longer available
For those families that stay in the area, most have sent their children to high school in central Canberra, frequently travelling together to reduce commute times or enable extracurricular activities. In a 2015 survey, three out of four parents were either sending or intending to send their children to a high school in Canberra. Less than 15 per cent indicated the three nearest NSW schools. Increasingly the number of ACT schools accepting NSW students had been decreasing but the majority of local high school students still went to Campbell High and then Dickson College from year 11. However, as of 2018, the ACT Government is no longer accepting NSW students into these high schools in central Canberra. Some popular ACT non-government schools have also said that they can no longer guarantee places for our local students in 2019.
​
The available options disperse the local high school cohort, are impractical or will have capacity issues
The available ACT pathway schools for NSW families are in South Canberra (Tuggeranong for those living in Bungendore and south of Bungendore) and North West Canberra (Belconnen for those living north and west of Bungendore). These options are impractical for many families due to commute times or lack of direct bus services, with the local high school cohort now dispersed in small numbers across many schools. Except for Tarago, our local primary schools officially feed into Queanbeyan High. However if the Queanbeyan schools (Queanbeyan High and Karrabar) were to accept all students seeking a public high school from nearby primary schools as well as the Bungendore region, they would need an additional 1,000 places. Braidwood Central is 90km in the opposite direction from Canberra, where most parents work – this makes extracurricular activities difficult. With the high school options considerably decreased, more families from Bungendore and the surrounding areas are now considering leaving. For many of them, we believe more than ever, that a local high school is a critical issue.
​
The wider community supports and wants a school
In a 2015 survey, 97 per cent of the community supported a high school in Bungendore. Three out of four parents said a high school would influence their decision to stay in the area, with 80 per cent favouring a public high school. The P&Cs and families of children at the local primary schools in Bungendore, Sutton, Tarago, Gundaroo and Captains Flat and all the rural residential communities in between (e.g. Bywong, Wamboin, Hoskinstown, Mount Fairy) have shown strong support for a high school in Bungendore.
​
Our children and community would significantly benefit from a local high school
The benefits of a local high school for students, include the ability to maintain friendships made in primary school, an additional 10 hours plus per week for extracurricular activities, study and family life ─ ultimately leading to better academic and social outcomes. It would also create opportunities for our teenagers to feel more connected to their community through participation in senior levels of sport, community groups and a part-time workforce – ultimately boosting Bungendore as a place to live and raise children.
​
A high school in Bungendore would not only support our children's future in our community, but it would also bring economic benefits including creating jobs locally, investing money back into our community and adding to our infrastructure. A high school in Bungendore is an investment back into our community.
The time is right for a dedicated high school for our great community!