Second class school: Gillieston Public’s outdated infrastructure

But instead, it’s the current situation at a primary school in the booming suburb of Gillieston Heights.

Gillieston Public P&C president Danielle Child contacted Fairfax Media with concerns after reading a story from 2013 about the school’s lagging infrastructure.

“Not a lot has changed,” she said. “We have tried to get answers why, but no one can give us any.”

A major issue is the school’s toilets, which are in a demountable building and run off a septic system.

The Department of Education said in 2016 that connecting to the town’s reticulated sewerage system at a distance of 140 metres, mostly through rock, was not cost effective in the current circumstances.

And a department spokesperson said this week that the “regularly maintained” septic system was of a capacity to meet the school’s demands.

But Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison said there were houses right across the road, so there was no reason why the school couldn’t be connected to the reticulated sewerage system.

Ms Child said the stench from the toilets was very strong, and particularly unbearable for her son who has a sensory processing disorder.

“Some days you can smell it a mile away,” she said.

Ms Child also took issue with the number of demountables at the school, saying there were only a few permanent buildings to service the 173 students.

Freedom of Information documents obtained by NSW Labor showed there were six demountables in use at the school at the start of this year.

“They’re basically all demountables,” Ms Child said. “Demountables were used when I was in primary school. With everything advancing now, why has nothing changed?”

Fencing was another concern of Ms Child’s. She said nearby schools had tall, spear-topped security fences while Gillieston was protected by farming fences.

The department spokesperson said the school considered its current fencing adequate and that more substantial security fencing could “detract from the ambience of the school setting”.

But Ms Child said more secure fences were needed at the school due to high crime rates in the area.

The lack of upgrades come after the student population increased by 65 per cent between 2012 and 2016 in line with booming housing developments in the area.

But enrolments have only increased by three students in the past two years, and Ms Child believes that is because parents are removing their children from the school due to the outdated facilities.

“There are all these new houses and subdivisions,” she said. “There’s such high growth in the area.

“We have high intake for kindergarten, but a lot of parents don’t stick it out. 

“It would be interesting to see how many Gillieston Heights kids were enrolled in schools out of zone.”

Ms Child said she did not want to disrupt her kids’ schooling by moving them, but was frustrated the school was being left behind.

“It’s pretty sad when you try really hard to do everything you can,” she said. 

“The P&C don’t have control over the infrastructure and couldn’t afford to fund it.”