The Warwick State High School Masterplan has been released – standing room only for present students and for the prospective Year 7 students in 2015. Are we meant to take this proposal seriously or is it simply a smoke screen to placate those who are concerned about the welfare of Warwick’s students?
The plans include facilities for the Year 7’s to move to High School in 2015, which have Government funding. But will the remaining proposed developments ever occur, when no funds have been allocated to them (like the overpass)?
In the 1950s Brisbane State High Schools located within the City Frame were closed, due to lack of space, and suburban High Schools were opened in their place, by the Queensland Department of Education. Similarly, Toowoomba State High School which was located in the city was relocated to the Mt Lofty site in the 1960s.
Fifty years later, Education Queensland has released plans to expand the use of the already overcrowded Warwick State High School site, within the City Frame!
Many more buildings, including the redevelopments of existing buildings, together with a possible influx of 300 students in 2015 will be located on the same space! While the plans look wonderful on paper, could someone please explain how the addition of more buildings and more students on the same space, eases overcrowding?
When will the Government acknowledge that the High School has run out of space and find a second site for High School students, who will very soon spend half their entire school lives under these conditions?
We hear so much criticism of today’s youth, and expect them to develop positive attitudes and relationships with others, under these conditions. The psychological wellbeing of our young people at school, in a space they can enjoy and be proud of, is just as important in their personal development as the emphasis placed on their formal school results.
Can we anticipate that our Councillors/prospective Councillors will speak up for our students’ welfare in the coming elections, and demand better for Warwick’s students? Why must they accept second best 50 years after these conditions were not tolerated anywhere else?
Who will speak up for our students, if we don’t?
Margaret McKinnon,
Warwick
