Rebuilding Northcote High School

Northcote High School is one of Victoria’s largest and best performing government schools. It currently educates approximately 1860 students with enrolment projections showing a continued upward trajectory, but our school is facing a crisis of space and outdated facilities:

Science facilities are outdated and one in four science classes happen outside of science-dedicated spaces.
Our students have restricted access to the library due to overcrowding. At recess and lunch time a staff member stands at the door to monitor student access to the library – as one student leaves, they can allow another to enter.
Our students have only one class Physical Education (PE) class out of every six in our gym building.
The school hall has significant structural issues
The school yard has limited space available for students to play and socialise during recess and lunch. Most of the available space is taken up by portable classrooms.

In 2017 the school had a Masterplan developed to plan out the steps to rebuild and modernise our school and assist with the pressures of increasing enrolments. The Masterplan relies on creating two multi-storey buildings in the centre of the school, which would allow us to reclaim space that is currently taken up by portable classrooms.

The images below show the plans.

We are grateful for the $4.5 million dollar, State Government funding for the Performing Arts Centre, completed in 2019. We need another $25 million for Stage 1 and 2 of the Masterplan to progress. These two multi-storey buildings will free up valuable space and allow us to advance our teaching and learning in modern facilities. They will provide facilities our children deserve.

The NHS Buildings committee has set up a Parliamentary e-petition, calling on the State Government to fund our Master Plan. We urge the school community, friends, families and neighbours to support the school by signing our petition (it is open to anyone who is a Victorian resident): https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/council/petitions/electronic-petitions/view-e-petitions/details/12/281

Please consider signing the e-petition and sharing the link to help us build a better school and community hub for current and future generations of NHS students.

The NHS Buildings Committee