Waiting lists for non-government schools soar as new private school site goes up for sale in Winter Valley

But a large plot of land earmarked for a new non-government school, or possibly a new campus of an existing school, has just gone on the market in the heart of Ballarat's western growth zone.

With many students missing out on slots in their preferred non-government schools, a 3.5 hectare block in the Greenhalghs Road precinct of Winter Valley's Winterfield estate is up for sale by expression of interest closing on April 27.

"Given the absolute scarcity of available P-12 private school sites within Greater Ballarat, we expect this premium offering to be highly contested," developers said in their marketing.

The private school site is in addition to a further 10 hectare site also set aside in the estate for future primary and secondary school facilities.

Most of Ballarat's independent and Catholic schools have waiting lists at year seven and other year levels, with letters of offer sent to current grade six students in April each year for admission into non-government secondary schools.

Ballarat Clarendon College head of admissions Ross Henderson said this year was the second year of having a "pretty extensive" waiting list at year seven and waiting lists now at most year levels including primary.

There will be 175 year seven students next year with about 50 more on the waiting list. Mr Henderson said the school had grown by about 80 students a year for the past five years and was nearing capacity.

"It's being driven by people moving here," Mr Henderson said. "It's a post-COVID thing that we probably started to really see in 2022. With our recent performance people are realising they can live in Ballarat, get very good schooling with half the mortgage and they are flocking out."

Mr Henderson said independent schools west of Melbourne were also bursting at the seams, and many other regional schools also had waiting lists.

"A number of people I have spoken to have tried a whole lot of regional areas," he said.

A Ballarat Grammar spokesperson said they would welcome about 210 year seven students next year including about 100 who would progress from year six in the junior school.

"The year level is currently experiencing very high demand with more applications than places for year seven entry in 2024, 2025 and 2026," they said.

And there are more applicants than places in 2024 for every year level from grade four to year 12.

Ballarat Grammar recently announced plans to build a new outdoor education campus on 226 hectares of farm and bushland at the edge of the Gariwerd/Grampians National Park at Moyston to help students build capacity and resilience through physical challenge, community projects and healthy risk-taking.

The city's three Catholic secondary colleges are also experiencing strong demand.

There are 156 positions in year seven at Loreto College each year, and deputy principal Christine Shaw said once again the number of applications received was "well in excess" of the number of places available.

"This has been the case in previous years and we always have a waitlist at Loreto College, particularly at our junior levels," she said.

"We do have capacity to take more students at Year 10 and above due to the nature of the subjects offered and the breadth of curriculum delivery. We have certainly seen an increase in inquiries and demand as Ballarat grows."

In 2020 Loreto College purchased a large parcel of land at the corner of Finchs and Cuthberts roads in Lucas to build a second campus to allow it to grow further than its current landlocked site on Lake Wendouree.

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"Our new campus is still very much in the planning stages and we are looking to ensure whatever we proceed with retains our strong Loreto College culture whilst maximising a contemporary and broad educational offering," she said.

At Damascus College, continuing growth has seen a ninth class added to its year seven program in 2024, while enrolments at other year levels are all full.

A spokesperson for St Patrick's College said enrolment numbers were not capped.

"We are very fortunate at St Pat's that because of the size of our grounds and our facilities our enrolment numbers are not capped. We therefore don't usually have waiting lists and don't need to create new buildings to service demand," they said.

"It is very rare that we have waiting lists for any year level, although all applicants are interviewed and must partake in our enrolment process."

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