In Australia, the Education is the responsibilities of each individual states or territories. This is no different in the case of Western Australia. However, each state is all different in terms how the student enrolment to the local school is organized and handled. There is two main item around the enrolment.
First is school zone which in case of Western Australia is referred as “Local Intake Area”. Local intake area for a school can often be referred as one of the following as well.
- Designated neighbourhood zone
- Designated neighbourhood boundary
- Neighbourhood zone
- School Zone
- School intake area
- School catchment
In case of Western Australia, most of the schools particularly in the metropolitan area have defined school local intake area. There can be significant overlap in the intake area between different schools in Western Australia, very rare in case of NSW and some other states.
The second item is the actual enrolment policy which covers item such as the age of enrolment and rule on how enrolment works around the school local intake area. Following is a section from the Western Australian Department of Education’s office enrolmnt policy document.
when the number of applications exceeds the places available at a local-intake
school, enrol children with priority given in the following order:
- First priority – A child residing in the local-intake area for the school, with
a sibling enrolled at the same school for that year, and who lives the
nearest to the school.
- Second priority – A child residing in the local-intake area for the school,
who does not have a sibling enrolled at the same school for that year,
and lives the nearest to the school.
- Third priority – A child residing outside the local-intake area for the
school, has a sibling enrolled at the same school for that year, and who
lives the nearest to the school.
- Fourth priority – A child residing outside the local-intake area for the
school, does not have a sibling enrolled at the same school for that year,
and who lives nearest to the school.
Guidance
Enrolment in Kindergarten, including Community Kindergartens, does not guarantee
enrolment at the same school for the following compulsory year unless the child lives in that
school’s local-intake area.
The important point to note is that residing inside the particular school’s local intake area does NOT guarantee the enrolment to the school in question. You can find the official Western Australia student enrolment policy document by following this link.
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