MEDIA RELEASE 20 February 2010

SKY High support approaches 1000 families

Seddon, Kingsville, Yarraville (SKY) High Working Group (WG) presence at the Yarraville festival generated over 200 new families joining the list of local parents concerned about the lack of a secondary college in the SKY area. This takes the SKY High membership to around 950 families.

Janine Lloyd, spokesperson from the SKY High Working group said that “there was a steady stream of people talking to us all day. There is an increasing concern among our residents about how the lack of a local high school is fracturing of our community. As well as parents, we had grandparents and residents without children talking to us about the importance of a high school to our local community”.

There is an increasing number of parents from neighbouring Newport and Spotswood becoming concerned about the lack of secondary college choices in the area. “These parents are starting to realise that their children will not be accepted into Williamstown High school as it is already at capacity and now officially has a restricted year 7 intake”.

Ms. Lloyd said that “we even had teenagers from neighbouring suburbs asking us why we didn’t have a local high school. These young adults described to us the benefits they personally experience having a local high school – one of these young adults found it so distressing that he gave SKY High a donation from his own pocket money!”.

The lack of a secondary college in the SKY area is becoming an increasingly larger social issue. Ms. Lloyd says “there is no disputing that our local primary schools and kindergartens are at capacity, the social impact is less visible but is definitely having a huge negative impact on families.”

Since November 2009, the Seddon, Kingsville, Yarraville (SKY) High Working Group (WG) has been in consultation with representatives from the head of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, independent consultants Spatial Vision and local Members for Footscray and Williamstown Ms. Marsha Thomson MP and Mr. Wade Noonan MP. A draft report has been completed and SKY High WG have fed back their comments.

According to Ms. Lloyd the SKY High WG is “very pleased with the level of consultation through out the process and the high level of support from our local MP’s. We feel that SKY High WG is being listened to and we are very confident that the process will continue to move forward”.

The consultation phase is nearing completion, with a final draft of the report expected at the end of February. Ms. Lloyd says that the SKY High WG is confident that the process is moving forward.

SKY High WG would like to thank the children of the SKY neighbourhood for drawing pictures of their local high school at the SKY High festival stall. A selection of these pictures can be seen on the SKY High website.

For further SKY High information, please see www.skyhigh.org.au or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Media Enquiries: Janine Lloyd m: 0424 646 595 e: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it