A Great Southern primary school that was open for a whole school year without any students enrolled has been closed.<\/p>\n
Gairdner Primary School shut its gates for good on December 31.<\/p>\n
While it still employed a principal, it did not have a single student enrolled for the whole 2025 school year.<\/p>\n
The school turned 65 last August, but enrolments had been on a steady downturn for several years, with families moving their children to nearby schools in Jerramungup and Bremer Bay instead.<\/p>\n
At the start of semester one in 2020, there were 22 students enrolled.<\/p>\n
By the start of the 2024 school year, there were only eight.<\/p>\n
No parents enrolled their students for 2025, and there were no enrolments on the books for 2026, either.<\/p>\n
In October, the school released a community consultation form inviting parents, families and residents to submit their feedback on the school and what its future should be.<\/p>\n
Southwest Education Regional Office staff also reached out to community members directly, with the consultation period lasting until November 5.<\/p>\n
On December 19, the school posted a message to its Facebook page announcing the WA education minister\u2019s decision to close the school as of December 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that rural schools like Gairdner Primary School have a rich history of educating generations of children from the families that make up the local community,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n
\u201cA closure committee, including representation of the community, will manage the closure of the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a school point of view, we want to take this opportunity to thank our neighbouring schools, and the wider community for their continued support.<\/p>\n
\u201cA massive thank you to our amazing staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have shown flexibility, adaptability and most importantly an unwavering commitment to supporting schools and students in our region.\u201d<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s deputy director general of schools Steve Watson said parents had moved their school-aged children to other schools in the area long before the school\u2019s official closure, with enrolments not expected to increase in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cGairdner Primary School experienced a significant decline in enrolments in recent years, with no enrolments in 2025, or expected in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies with school-aged children have established themselves at nearby schools such as Jerramungup District High School and Bremer Bay Primary School.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsultation with the local community helped to inform advice regarding the ongoing viability of the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gairdner is about 30km south of Jerramungup District High School, which takes students from kindergarten to Year 10.<\/p>\n
Wellstead Primary School is about 48km from the small town, and Bremer Bay Primary School is about a 60km drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Great Southern primary school that was open for a whole school year without any students enrolled has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,2555,44,115038,45],"class_list":["post-410660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-education","tag-news","tag-regional-news","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}