New school gets high score

Education Minister Peter Collier announced the location of the new primary school earlier this month.

Mother of two and Landsdale Residents Association secretary Dionne Leighton-Harris said a new school would take the pressure off the crowded Ashdale, Madeley and existing Landsdale primary.

‘I think it’s going to be absolutely fabulous; it encourages people to send their kids to their local schools. I like the idea of it being close by as it encourages people to walk,’ she said.

Mrs Leighton-Harris said it was a surprise to hear a school announced for the suburb’s east when the association had been lobbying for the past four years for a school in the south.

‘I don’t really think there’ll be any difference really. Ideally one in south Landsdale helps to get that catchment, east Landsdale has fewer houses at the moment but either way it’s a good thing,’ she said.

‘The biggest positive is that our voices have been heard; we’ve been given something.’ She said that it might not be in the location they wanted, but at least it showed that they had been heard.

Girrawheen MLA Margaret Quirk welcomed the move in State parliament.

‘It has been a long, hard struggle and, as I have said on many occasions, not a moment too soon given the exponential growth in the area,’ she said.

She expressed concern at a suggestion the school would share its playing grounds with the council as public open space. The $14 million school is one of 16 new public primary schools to open in the next four years.