Purpose of this Policy
To ensure students have access to neighbourhood schools and the freedom to choose other schools subject to facility limitations.
Policy
Eligible children have the right to be placed in their designated neighbourhood school.
The regional director has the authority to effect placement of students.
Designated neighbourhood school
The designated neighbourhood school is the school that is nearest the student’s permanent residence (shortest practicable route), unless the regional director needs to restrict new enrolments at a school or has designated the neighbourhood boundaries for the school.
See our enrolment page for our designated neighbourhood.
Permanent address guidelines
The Residential address check supports the application of the Placement policy and provides fair and consistent information for schools to assist in the verificiation of a students permanent address.
Priority order of placement
All children have the right to attend their designated neighbourhood school (known as their local school). You can also apply to a school that is not your local school.
In some cases, a school may not have enough space to enrol students from outside their zone.
In these cases, schools must manage enrolments using the Placement Policy’s ‘priority order of placement’. This outlines how to prioritise out-of-zone applications when limited places are available.
The priority order of placement for out-of-zone enrolments is:
- students with a sibling at the same permanent address who are attending the school at the same time.
- all other students in order of closeness of their home to the school.
In exceptional circumstances, a student may be enrolled on compassionate grounds. Applications on compassionate grounds are considered on a case-by-case basis. If your circumstances are challenging and your local school is not suitable, you should talk to the principal or a Community Liaison Officer in the regional office