The Hills District

The Hills District

I find the 'Hills' district weird. I'm going to call it, they do things differently out there. In the East there is no public school market and there is no public school with the status of being the best. There is not fierce competition to get into the public schools, I am told however, that in the Hills this is not so.

This issue was first raised in a car trip when I was enquiring about life in the Hills district, my friend said that she went to West Pennant Hills High, and that there was competition between West Pennant and Cherrybrook Technology High School - one of the largest schools in the state. Discussion was had over school borders (thankfully I had some knowledge of the issue due to this course), and how families bought houses within the catchment area of their preferred school. But one day, she recounted, the unthinkable happened - the government changed the catchment boundaries. Havoc wreaked the Hills, families who had bought into the Cherrybrook catchment found themselves in the new West Pennant Hills catchment, others who had bought into the West Pennant catchment found themselves facing an uncertain future at Cherrybrook.

Brown writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that “[D]ata available on the My School website has driven families to settle also in the catchment areas for the top public comprehensive schools such as Killara High, Willoughby Girls, Chatswood High, Mosman High and Killarney Heights High.”[1] This idea of public school choice affects not only the North-west of Sydney, but also the North Shore. The article continues writing that “Northern Sydney Regional Council of Parents and Citizens Associations executive member Steph Crofts said parents kept a close eye on the academic performance of the public schools. 'You hear of families moving into the catchment areas for those highly ranked schools to get their kids in,' she said. 'I think that explains a lot of the movement.''’[2]

Research by Kenway and Bullen identified three main factor’s in school choice; proximity, pleasant feel, and performance.’[3] These ideas mesh with both the personal recounts on my friends, and the Sydney Morning Herald. Parents clearly want their children to attend school that perform well and have a pleasant feel. However, whilst some parents may send their children to schools near their homes, others appear to send their children to homes near their schools.

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[1] Browne, ‘Upwardly Mobile Inundate North Shore Schools’, Sydney Morning Herald, September 2012.

[2] Browne, ‘Upwardly Mobile Inundate North Shore Schools’, Sydney Morning Herald, September 2012.

[3] Kenway, J. & Bullen, (2001). Consuming children: Education-Entertainment-Advertising. Buckingham: Open University Press. Chapter 5: Designer schools, packaged students. 130