Playtime without the playground: The view from Melbourne’s high-rise public schools

Melbourne students’ learning is increasingly going sky-high, but experts say the key to making vertical schools work is finding a way for them to still connect with nature.

Thousands of Victorian students are now enrolled across the nine high-rise public schools the Victorian government has built in the past six years.

Labor’s bid to densify Melbourne means more modern schools are planned for the city, starting in Fishermans Bend, which will open its version in 2026.

Infrastructure Victoria projects up to 104 new schools will be required by 2036 to match the state’s population growth. It has recommended the government fund and buy land for 35 to 60 new schools by 2030.

From the outside, South Melbourne Primary School, one of Melbourne’s vertical schools, looks more like a modern apartment block than the sprawling campus dotted with timber and portable classrooms most of us are familiar with.

“Every kid in Victoria loves a big, open, wide field to go kick the ball,” principal Noel Creece said. “But it’s not our reality.”

“It doesn’t make sense to build schools where they’re not connected to public transport and not where young families are moving and want to live … which is in the city.”

South Melbourne was the first multi-level public primary school to open in Victoria six years ago. Residents campaigned for years to fill a gap left by the closure of nearby schools during the Kennett government’s austerity program.

Students can spend recess in a courtyard at the front of the school, or on the indoor and outdoor basketball courts. Teachers also supervise students at a nearby park and organise trips to the nearby Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.

“Some kids just want to have a bit of quiet time, so they come in and just do a bit of reading on a balcony,” Creece said.

But a school environment in which students are taught in classrooms that aren’t surrounded by dusty football ovals, and where recess is often indoors rather than in playgrounds, has raised some concerns.

A University of Melbourne study examining the impact access to nature had on students at vertical schools in Victoria, NSW and Queensland found design drastically affected their experience.

Students submitted photo diaries as part of the research, documenting their thoughts and feelings at school. Those at a Sydney school where outdoor access was limited were envious of students at vertical schools where nature was incorporated into the design.

“Freedom is out of reach,” one student reported. “[I am] jealous of so many other schools with so much freedom and space to move around … we’re confined to this small space.”

Universally, students at vertical schools valued seeing trees and parks from windows, and many sought interactions with nature.

Researcher Tim Baber, a horticulturist and teacher for 25 years, said the connection between healthy childhood development and direct contact with nature was well documented.

Baber said positioning schools to connect with existing infrastructure, particularly public parks, was one way to provide children with outdoor access within urban centres.

“That traditional, horizontal form of schools that we all probably went to ourselves here in Australia, we’re going to be seeing fewer of those being built now, just because of the lack of land,” he said.

“The responsibility is beholden upon teachers, policymakers and architects to come up with schools that give them that contact with nature that they’re otherwise missing.”

Wurun Senior Campus rises six storeys on the site of the former Fitzroy Gasworks, and is part of the inner-north suburb’s major development.

The campus is built on a corner block, and students use a rooftop basketball court and two indoor courts for recreation.

Architect Martin Palmer from GHD Design said outdoor terraces on each level helped overcome the absence of traditional outdoor space.

“The campus’s design optimises the use of space by creating outdoor terraces that serve as natural
extensions of the indoor learning areas,” he said.

As families move into the 1200 homes being developed at the gasworks site, they will have access to Wurun’s ground-level basketball courts when students aren’t using them. In turn, students will use a community sports centre when it’s complete.

“By keeping the facility open to the public outside school hours, Wurun enhances the recreational options available to the neighbourhood,” Palmer said.

In 2023, the Education Department completed the first assessment of existing Victorian government school infrastructure in more than a decade. It has not yet reported on the findings.

A government spokesperson said the department monitored enrolment and population patterns annually to determine where new schools or expansions were needed.

“More than 50 per cent of the schools that have been built across the whole of Australia in the past 10 years have been built right here in Victoria,” the spokesperson said.

“We will continue to build the schools needed for Victorians.”

At South Melbourne, Creece said his school’s demographic was well suited to adapting to a vertical school layout.

“If I was opening this in Geelong, or somewhere that you didn’t have to have a high-rise, it would be a bit of a shock,” he said.

Creece said about 80 per cent of South Melbourne families had moved from densely populated cities, including Mumbai, Beijing and Shanghai, where vertical schools were common. A small percentage, he said, were wary when they accompanied him on pre-enrolment tours of the six-storey open-plan school.

“When they see the beautiful kids we’ve got and the way they behave inside the environment, almost everything just dissipates from there,” Creece said.

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