Northcote High School fined: ‘School shopping’ prompts enrolment deposits

Listen: Ross and John talk with Julie Podbury

Government schools have been driven to charging enrolment deposits because parents are ‘school shopping’.

That’s the opinion of Victoria’s president of the Australian Principals Federation, Julie Podbury, who says it’s not unusual.

Northcote High School has been reprimanded by the Education Department after asking parents to pay $270 in enrol.

Ms Podbury told Ross and John it was not an uncommon practice at schools that offering accelerated learning programs.

‘I’m aware that a number of schools do this exercise to try to control the school shopping that’s undertaken’ she said.

‘School shopping’, she explained, was the practice of enrolling in several schools.

‘So schools require a deposit to see how genuine the enrolment is,’ she said.

Ross: That’s not going to scare off Roger the Rich Man though, is it.