Tanya Morris has always been worried about which high school her daughter Skylar will attend.
Based in Bella Vista, Morris has limited options, each crowded and under pressure from the skyrocketing population.
But at an empty green lot just off Windsor Road, the NSW government is proposing a solution to her and all the concerned parents in the area: a new primary school and high school.
“It’s just much-needed,” Morris said. “What was going to be a 10- to 15-minute drive for us will become a five-minute walk. It’ll be great.”
Skylar goes to Bella Vista Public School, which she described as being at capacity.
“All the schools here, they’re at capacity. There are so many new families in the area; with the growth of all the housing and developments, I think the system is reaching its limits.”
To address the situation, the Minns government has announced new schools in Bella Vista to support the surging population in The Hills.
The schools will each accommodate more than 1000 students and will be built at a site between the Bella Vista and Kellyville metro stations.
Deputy Premier Prue Car called it the “biggest investment in education in The Hills in a generation” and said the schools would help ease the pressure on crowded schools in the region, such as Kellyville Public School or Castle Hill High School.
“This is about getting ahead of new development as well. It’s about getting that balance right that we traditionally have not, that governments traditionally haven’t got right,” she said.
“We are in a race; it’s a bit of a game of whack-a-mole, of trying to make sure that we build the schools and the infrastructure where it’s required as people move in, but that’s what people expect of their government, and that’s what they’ll get with this government.”
The new high school, which is slated to open by the beginning of 2029, will include a multipurpose hall and a large playing field and will be master-planned for future expansion. It will be able to accommodate 1200 students.
The primary school will be able to accommodate 1000 students and is set to open at the beginning of 2030. It will be built alongside the high school and will be delivered alongside a new co-located public preschool.
Car said the schools being close by would mean students would be able to go from pre-school all the way to year 12 at the same place, maintaining a “lifetime of friendships”.
“That’s an actual community,” she added.
The government also announced a major upgrade to Cherrybrook Public School, which is set to deliver 28 new permanent classrooms, a new hall, canteen and expanded library. The works will also result in the removal of demountable classrooms from the site.
The new projects, announced as part of Tuesday’s state budget, come as part of a government push to meet the demands of a booming population in the region. The government has already announced a new high school at Box Hill, new primary schools and public preschools at The Gables and Box Hill, and major upgrades at Matthew Pearce Public School, Rouse Hill High School, Castle Hill Public School and Excelsior Public School.
The new school openings will bring the government investment in education in the region to almost $1 billion since coming into office.
The Hills Shire is one of the fastest-growing LGAs in Sydney, with the region’s population set to grow by nearly 70 per cent in the next two decades, driven by housing developments in Box Hill, Castle Hill and Kellyville.
Some suburbs in the region recorded double-digit population growth rates in 2024-25, including at Box Hill, Marsden Park and Schofields. Western Sydney is also expected to grow by 32 per cent by 2046, compared with 13 per cent in most eastern and inner-city areas.
These increases have heaped pressure onto education infrastructure in the region, resulting in many schools depending on demountables to keep up.
“Our schools have made it work so far,” Car said. “But it was always government’s role to deliver the schools where they’re needed, and that’s what we want to do.”
Mostafa Rachwani is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously the Community Affairs reporter at Guardian Australia.Connect via email.
