The inaugural principal for the state government’s new North Shore high school in Crows Nest will be Kathy Melky, the current deputy principal of North Sydney Girls High School. Melky will take up her new role from term four this year before the school opens at the start of 2015.

Charmaine Hui

Stephanie Croft, an executive member of the Northern Sydney Regional Council of P&C Associations, says the group is delighted with the appointment of Melky as principal.

“It’s great news for the new school to have someone of that calibre,” Croft said.

Melky’s role will be pivotal to the delivery of excellence in education and fostering opportunity and success in the debut students. She will also be part of a new committee with parents and students to determine the school’s name, uniforms and staff appointments, according to Croft.

The new co-educational high school is being established on the existing school site of Bradfield College in Crows Nest, which will relocate to new facilities at the Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE in St Leonards at the end of the year.

The Bradfield College site will be refurbished to cater for students in years 7 to 10. Refurbished facilities include a science laboratory, new food technology resources and a games court area. The school will only take year seven students in its first year and work its way up to year 10 students by 2018.

“We are really excited because we needed a comprehensive school in that area, so it’s fabulous news for us,” Croft said.

The school will help to alleviate long standing overcrowding problems in local schools by providing 800 to 1000 places for students in the lower North Shore area.

“We are delighted. Once the government became aware of the issues that we’ve raised it moved quickly to address those issues.”

But Croft urged more would need to be done in the coming years to meet the growing number of students.

“Last year alone, in the lower North Shore, we had an increase of over 600 students … so you can see that if we have that sort of growth in just one year, and that sort of growth is continuing, there needs to be some other things as well.”

Several other initiatives have been announced over the last few years, including a new primary school in the Anzac Memorial Club site in Cammeray, an upgrade of Mowbray Primary School from 350 students to 1000 and a new high school at the UTS Ku-ring-gai site in Lindfield.

Ms Croft said the planned projects, along with the new school opening next year, would make a big difference to the North Shore area once they are completed.

“Everyone in the community is very supportive of the new school opening and everyone is determined to make it a good school. It’s going to be wonderful.”