For decades, distracted students uninterested in Macbeth or trigonometry have gazed out the window at the green oval of Forest High School, their peers doing archery, playing soccer, or engaging in unsanctioned activities in the adjacent bushes.
But those days are over. Forest’s 877-strong student body are relocating to a new site three kilometres east – with an ocean view – on Monday.
Years in the making, the Forest High School relocation from its previous home next to Northern Beaches Hospital will make way for a controversial town centre.
Set high on the hill in Allambie Heights, the new school overlooks the northern beaches to the Pacific Ocean from one window and out to the city skyline from another.
The impressive new build, which boasts a theatre, a fully equipped gym, all-weather sports fields and airconditioning, was designed around what principal Nathan Lawler called the “core values” of the school.
“We really push this narrative that our role is to serve our community as a comprehensive high school,” he said.
“So if you’re a sporty kid, come to us. If you’re a creative student, come to us. If you’re an academic student choosing more of the traditional courses, the maths and sciences, come to us. If you require additional support, we will be right on it.”
The $112 million school’s opening marks the beginning of a controversial new era of schooling on the northern beaches, with catchment boundaries re-drawn and plans made then forsaken in keeping with the state government’s election promise to offer co-education to every public high school student.
Forest has expanded its catchment east to take in students from Manly Vale, Balgowlah, Allambie Heights and Seaforth.
This year, enrolments are up. The school normally enrols 120 Year 7 students but there are 145 beginning on Monday, a trend that Lawler said was repeated across the year groups.
Parents are leaving local private and independent schools, as well as single-sex public highs Balgowlah Boys and Mackellar Girls, in favour of Forest, he said.
“I wouldn’t say that we’re drawing just from one school,” he said.
“There are a number of factors. The reputation of our teachers in the community is really strong and our parents speak highly of the school.
“I think having a new school helps and the option for families that were previously zoned for single sex schools to be able to come, that helps.”
Elsewhere on the northern beaches, Freshwater High will end its successful run as a senior campus for Year 11 and 12 students to become a comprehensive school for years 7 to 12 and it will take in students from a bigger area from next year.
Students in the catchments can still attend the local single-sex options of Mackellar Girls and Balgowlah Boys, which this year had 97 of its students on the HSC honour roll.
The changes have not been without controversy: the Freshwater High community lobbied unsuccessfully for it to remain a senior campus, while the government backflipped on plans to turn Balgowlah and Mackellar into co-ed schools.
The construction of the new Forest High was said to have polluted nearby Manly Dam with silt runoff. Complaints were also made about increased traffic from the site and noise from construction.
Now the build is complete, students this week will begin the business of school. Lawler said trepidation among students had mostly given way to excitement.
“We’ve had different groups come across. They’ve been really excited and almost in disbelief that we’ve got a facility that’s this nice, that they’re going to be able to call this their school,” he said.
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