The Melbourne schools with the most portable buildings and the impact on students

Almost half of the state’s public school buildings are demountable as enrolments surge in Melbourne’s growth corridors and many new schools need temporary classrooms to keep up with demand.

Figures from the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, analysed by this masthead, show that last December there were 6773 relocatable buildings in government schools – comprising 43 per cent of the state’s 15,727 school buildings.

That number is double what the auditor-general reported a decade ago, partly due to enrolments in government schools jumping by 75,752 in the past 10 years.

Experts say that while the current buildings are more comfortable than portables of the past, they take up valuable open space on school sites and limit efficient layouts for teaching.

The numbers do not distinguish between relocatable buildings being used as classrooms from auxiliary buildings such as storerooms and sheds. Relocatable buildings today, which are usually smaller than permanent buildings, equate to about 12 per cent of the total floor space in schools.

The City of Casey has 681 relocatable buildings, the most statewide, with schools that opened just five years ago, such as Ramlegh Park Primary School in Clyde North, having just four permanent buildings while 23 are relocatable.

“Casey parents often speak to me about their concerns about the number of students in local schools and the use of portables,” said Casey Mayor Michelle Crowther, adding the council offers the state government population information but does not plan schools.

“We want to see our growing communities supported by well-planned schools.”

Relocatable buildings are often a feature of a rising population, said Ben Cleveland, co-director of the Learning Environments Applied Research Network at the University of Melbourne, citing an influx of temporary buildings in Blackburn and Nunawading when these suburbs were teeming with young families several decades ago.

“A lot of them have gone from those suburbs now. They’ve moved out to your Caseys, Cranbournes and Pakenhams,” Cleveland said.

“The government has tried very hard to develop new schools; they’ve celebrated 100 new schools in the last five years. On an international scale that’s an awful lot. They are going to have to continue building at that rate to make sure they don’t have schools full of relocatables for years to come.”

Cleveland said an issue with the use of portables as classrooms, which usually accommodate fewer students than permanent buildings, was that formal teaching spaces were restricted, and their layouts made it harder to create complementary spaces such as classrooms next to informal common areas.

Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Belinda Hudak said it wasn’t just expanding schools but also older ones where relocatable buildings were a welcome addition to replace ageing infrastructure. Still, she said older buildings and longstanding temporary ones needed to be renewed at a greater rate.

“The overarching issue is the long-term planning for school buildings and looking at not just growth corridors but areas where numbers have been stable for quite a while yet there are continuous relocatable buildings. And some of those relocatable buildings are past their end of life,” Hudak said.

She said many schools had to push for their own master plans and then use them to apply for grants, which school leaders found complex and frustrating.

“What comes out of a master plan can depend on a school’s ability to manage that themselves,” she said.

The school with the most relocatable buildings statewide is Alamanda K-9 College, which has 59, and enrolled 3335 students last year – double the figure of a decade earlier. The Point Cook school has separate timetables for students to use outdoor space during lunch and recess, due to space limitations.

“The school offers multiple timetables in order to ensure our students are able to play outside in relatively small groups and have access to the equipment and playground areas,” principal Lyn Jobson said.

The school is in stage two of a master plan upgrade. A new building recently opened for elective subjects and a new three-storey building is to open next year with 24 general classrooms, new science classrooms and a rooftop futsal court and play area.

“Once the construction work is completed … five modular buildings, including general purpose classrooms, canteen and toilet facilities, will have been removed as part of the project, making way for more play space for students,” Jobson said.

Select-entry boys’ school Melbourne High will have 18 relocatable buildings on its hockey field from term one next year while maintenance and safety works are undertaken in the main Gothic-style building, which has been the subject of school and department defect reports ranging from water damage to major structural issues.

A Department of Education spokesperson said the government had spent $20.1 billion on new and existing school buildings since 2015.

“When recommending funding for school upgrades, the department uses all available information, including condition assessments, enrolment projections and pre-existing project plans.”

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