• It will be the best in regional NSW;

• It will have no peer in any educational sector;

• Students will be learning in the most advanced learning environment anywhere outside Sydney;

• We will attract students back to the public system from the private system;

• A purpose built learning support centre will be the only one of its kind in the region;

• No other community will be able to match Armidale for its educational expertise and facilities;

These claims are unsubstantiated and fail to recognise that a quality learning environment is far more than a building constructed from all new materials.

I imagine the Ballina Community was subjected to the same political spin preceding the building of the Ballina super school

The concept of a super school is not new .The prefix ‘super’ refers to ‘superimpose’. They are sometimes referred to as ‘stack-em-high’ or ‘vertical classroom’ schools. They are widely spread across US and UK . They exist in SA, VIC, TAS and NSW

The NSW Minister for Education has created a new unit within the Education Department, Education Infrastructure NSW. This new strategy according to the Minister of Education “will see more facilities such as school halls and ovals shared with the community and could see larger schools built on smaller blocks in areas where space and land prices are a premium” It is primarily a strategy to deal with forward student population growth estimates in densely populated areas where the only solution is UP but all schools will fall under the same policy.

Government is pushing amalgamation policies everywhere and taking Education along for the ride. It provides economies of scale for the Government (both AHS and DHS need infrastructure upgrades and have done so for decades so knock them both down, stack them into one big school and sell off the remaining land to help finance the project).There are some real benefits for education and the broader community but is it the BEST solution for students in or Region? 

Credible research shows a clear link between school size and the quality of school life for both staff and students and the quality of education.

Reviews of established super schools show: 

• more students are likely to get lost in the system;

• more school yard violence, theft, substance abuse and gang participation;

• much harder to divide and conquer problem students;

• less parental participation.

If polls are to be believed it appears that the community will not blindly accept the political spin.

This can only be a good thing.

The Armidale Regional Council Administrator cum ‘dictator’ is again spending ratepayer’s monies this time promising $1 Million to the Dept. of Education for the new ‘Superschool’. 

This for a building we won’t own, on land we don’t own and regulated entirely by the Education Dept. This follows the unfunded $3.5 million for the dis-location of the library (with a rumoured blowout of almost another $1 million).

Please tie this man’s hands before he signs away yet more millions; adding more problems and budget shortfalls for the incoming elected council to solve.