Santa Sophia Catholic College (New School)

Further to my previous objection whereby I believe a Catholic school should contain a chapel or prayer space, I just read this in Appendix D - Urban Design Report Part 1, Section 6.2: "The school should be intentionally Catholic". I believe this supports my objection on the basis of the design not actually meeting the drivers of development.

I don't believe this site is suitable for a school looking to the future. A high rise school is not a good learning environment for children. Children will not have access to green space within the actual school grounds which can be psychologically harmful. Mental illness among the young is prevalent in our society and would not like to read in the media that a child has "jumped from the 5th floor", the trauma to others in the school community would have detrimental effects. The NSW Education Department has moved away from this model of schooling. Children need space to feel safe and were they are not vulnerable to the general public when wanting to use outdoor space. Sharing outdoor space with the general community does not provide this. Also truancy and " hanging" around the shopping centre will become more prevalent as witnessed in Parramatta where there are more children in Westfield than actually on the school grounds. This is also a problem for the general public going about their day to day business having to negotiate hoards of school children. As this general area (North Kellyville currently being developed) the population is being crowded into apartments and smaller home blocks, obesity being of national concern also, where do the children run and just be children? Land was originally purchased in Terry Road for the purpose of building this school for the community however the convenience of developer greed has overshadowed the actual needs of the children looking to the future rather than a quick fix. The site is not suitable to accommodate the number of 2000 children which the Terry Rd site can accommodate as was originally planned. Traffic will create further congestion as can be witnessed when trying to negotiate around any school in the area let alone in a shopping centre. Safety for children, shopping centre patrons and businesses during an evacuation could result in a serious injury especially to the young children and elderly who cannot be moved quickly on to the public open space. Design of the school does not allow for future expansion.

Land at Terry Road has already been provided and allocated for a school, now Santa Sophia. The size of this land is substantial for the expected number of 2,000 students.
Having a school at a shopping centre is a distraction to a child's learning. It will not be able to provide a suitable and a healthy learning environment.
If built on the proposed site at The Gables within a shopping area, the proposed open spaces will be shared by external users. The school will have limited access to these open spaces. This will also compromise the safety of the students. In addition, there won't be any appropriate spaces for evacuation areas for the students.
Another safety issue would be the number of cars that would be travelling around the school. Drop off and pick up points would not be suitable if the school would be in the same complex as a shopping centre. Plus there would not be enough parking for staff members.

I believe the site at The Gables near a shopping Centre and High Density Residential Buildings is not suitable for the proposed development of the K-12 School. Originally the land that had been purchased on Terry Road, Box Hill in 2004 had been chosen and provisions were made as the site for the school. I believe the Terry Road site is more suitable as it has 11 hectares which can include space for multiple building, open spaces for sporting facilities and outdoor play areas for the students.
I am concerned for the safety of the students with the proposed school development in The Gables as it is in close proximity to the Shopping Complex and High Rise Residential Buildings. Also, in the event of an emergency, there doesn't appear to be a safe evacuation point to cater for the number of staff and students (the nearest location would appear to be the public open space which would require students and staff to cross a busy road.

Originally the land that had been purchased on Terry Road, Box Hill in 2004 had been chosen and provisions were made as the site for the school. I believe the Terry Road site is more suitable as it has 11 hectares which can include space for multiple buildings, sufficient staff and visitor parking, an adequate drop off and pick up zone and secured open spaces for sporting facilities and outdoor play areas for the students.

Santa Sophia Catholic college is a school that the Catholic parish of Rouse Hill was promised to serve the educational needs of its parishoners and locals for secondary education. Up until 2018, it was fully expected that the site of this school was to be on Terry Rd, where a large greenfield site was purchased in mid 2000s for this express purpose. Enrolments were undertaken on the above understanding. Changes were made without consulting the people of Rouse Hill to the current proposed site. With this abrupt change that has overtones of backroom deals done between CEPD and Celestinos, many proposals have arisen which invite objection. These are as follows:

1) the site pays disrespect to the understanding between CDEP and Rouse Hill parish since 2004. Existing land was made available and now we are being asked to use alternative land. This has necessarily reduced the land available to the school which has put constraints on the facilities of the school, its layout and has put it in proximity with shopping centres, with all the distractions for students that this entails. It also means that 2000 students will be placed onto a much smaller site, the density of people will be excessive, will pose risks to the safety of those students and will place unnecessary burden on the roads of what essentially is commercially zoned real estate. THere is no safe evacuation point that can accomodate all occupants in an emergency. The nearest open space necessitates crossing a busy road.

3) This proposed school wil burden the neighbouring areas and saturate a densely populated areas. I can see how this benefits Celestinos and The Gables, but I cannot see how it benefits the students and their families to getting a quality Catholic education.

4) There is no provision for visitor parking and teachers will be forced to use adjacent shopping centre carparks. This is ludicrous given the original greenfield site at Terry Road.

5) Proximity to shopping centre will impact on the inculturation of the Catholic students who need a place dedicated to learning and removed from the lure of commercial interests and pursuits.

6) The design of the school does not lend itself to lunch time sporting activities

7) The design of this high-rise school prevents solar access to the students and the resultant deleterious effect this will have on staff and students alike is unacceptable

8) Insufficient open space on the school ground stymies future growth and development opportunities. It would be a short term solution with no possibility for up-scaling enrolments when growth finally does hit the area.

The entire process, as mentioned, has been kept away from the people of Rouse Hill parish. It reeks of corruption on the part of Celestino and CDEP. The process ought to be investigated by the appropriate bodies.

The site is not a suitable place for a new school for nearly 2000 students. Land in Terry Road had been purchased by the Parish in 2004 and the Terry Road site do provide further expansion to cater for future growth. The shopping center site does not have safe evacuation point that can accommodate all occupants in an emergency. The nearest location would be the public open space which require students to cross a road. This would cause children's safety issues. Also, there are insufficient drop off and pick up spaces to cater for the school at full capacity. This result in traffic and parking problems. The design of the school is such that there could be no recess and lunch time sporting activities, will have little to no solar access and insufficient open space on the school grounds. Proximity to the shopping centre is another concern.

I am objecting to this project under the following reasons:
Suitability of Site – Having the school within the Gables Shopping Centre would bring multiple issues to the area such as safety concerns for children, traffic concerns for an already heavily populated area and issues of having to form agreements with third parties in order to have play areas for sport. These concerns would not be present if the CEDP used the land at Terry road (as originally planned) which is 5 times the size of the land at the Gables Land purchased in Terry Road in 2004 - planning and advertised from the beginning of the Parish that this would be the site for the school. If we have already made provision on good land why move somewhere else. This is not about us not wanting a school but rather about having the right school in the right location. WE DO NOT NEED A HIGH RISE SCHOOL we have the room at Terry Road.

Public Interest – The CEDP has stated that they have already had consultation with the Public by way of 3 Public Meetings. These meetings did not allow for consultation rather were a forum where Mr Greg Whitby Director of the CEDP stated that “It is a done deal and that the site will be The Gables not Terry Road.” Met with heavy objection from the community at large Mr Whitby chose to ignore the public and their interest. All well and good if we didn’t have the space, but we do. One of the main arguments from Mr Whitby is that the school has to be completed by 2021 and that the Terry road site won’t be completed until 2023. The public has said they are prepared to wait so that a more suitable school can be built. The CEDP has chosen to ignore this and not listen to the majority. Placing the school at The Gables will burden the neighbouring areas - shopping centre, open spaces and housing. Why would you saturate an already densely populated area if you do not have to? The use of outside space is dependent on zoning. Sporting agreements for the use of the outside space have not been finalised and will not be exclusive. The school may have to compete with other parties for the use of this space. This would not occur if the school was built at the more appropriate original site of Terry road.

Traffic and Parking – It is a known fact that the Infrastructure in the area is already having it’s challenges. To allow for a school to be built in an area that is so heavily populated without allowing for sufficient room for parking, dropping off and picking up of students is absurd. The Terry Road site that was originally earmarked for the school has plenty of room for the cars to leave the main street and safely load and unload students thus taking the burden off the main road. The school is expected to increase traffic flow 120 vehicles per 10 minutes during peak times; provision of 10 'kiss and drop' spaces; no provision for visitor parking; allocated staff parking in shopping centre. Experience at other schools shows that parents wait in the car and drop the younger children (K-2)off at the door. They are not prepared to let their children walk by themselves especially on a public street as in the plans for the school. This will cause major traffic and safety problems. The more appropriate site at Terry road will solve this problem

Children's Safety - The separation of play space and learning areas hinders the ability to safely manoeuvre 2000 children across roads, especially in the event of an emergency. A major concern when it comes to Fire Safety is that of ushering people with disabilities to safety. The building of multi level schools in this case 5 stories over multiple buildings increases the risk to people with disabilities, especially children exponentially. The Terry Road site will provide for a safer school as it will have room for on site playing fields and not have the need for high rise schooling in order to accommodate the children.

Shopping Centre - Proximity to the shopping centre is a concern. The site is intended to be a shared site with public groups, using the building after school hours. It is far easier to identify potential predators at a school site that serves only one purpose than in a shopping centre where anyone can come and go as they please. In the past years there have been many instances reported by children where strangers were involved in the hills area and allowing for such a school will increase risks of potential harm to students.

Indoor Learning Life - no recess and lunch time sporting activities - no direct access to outside areas. Students will be confined to their floor area. Inability to let off steam may result in psychological harm to children. This is liken to prisons such as Silverwater gaol where inmates get their allotted outside time. During a public meeting when asked about sufficient outside play time for children Mr Whitby could not give a straight answer. The general consensus by CEDP staff was that they were trying to work that out.

Future Expansion - There is no provision for future expansion. The Terry Road site being over 5 times larger than the proposed site allows for future expansion over many years to come. Providing more opportunity for greater outcomes for our children’s education. This would not be a problem if the more suitable Terry road site were to be used.

I am part of the Rouse Hill Kellyville community and Parish my residence in 2020 will be Terry Road Rouse Hill. There is no reason why this new school should be located at a shopping centre, the students will be cooped up in a building which will have no open space of the own only a public park, children need a secure play ground .The public will be disadvantaged with many more parking problems and staff will have limited parking in the shopping centre.The safety of children will be Jeopardised in an evacuation situation as there is no open space large enough where that many children may gather without having to cross the road.The land that has been designated in Terry Rd for this school is more suitable for a school of this capacity.The size of the school building at Box Hill north is excessive compared to the size of the Land. The design of the school does not provide for any potential expansion, to cater for future growth.The Terry Road site is five times larger allowing for future expansion which is inevitable considering the amount of housing growth in the area.

As a parent and who's child would have very likely been enrolled into Santa Sophia in due time, I will not support having him or any future children enrolled in a school within a shopping complex. For various reasons:
1. I do not think it is safe for a school to be surrounded in close proximity to members of the public and commercial organizations. Children should be given a safe environment to learn.
2. I do not like the message and distraction of consumerism to be available to my children every day while he is supposed to be in school
3. I do not think a shopping complex is conducive to learning about academia or faith based learning.
4. I did not choose to live out west where there is ample land, for my child to learn in a concrete high rise school. I would rather he learn in a school with ample land where he and his classmates can have safe access to sporting fields and other school areas without sharing with the public. This was my experience and where my classmates and friends thrived.

As a member of the public:
1. I believe it would cause an over crowding in what would most likely be an already busy and congested residential and commercial space causing foot and car traffic.

Thank you for reading my submission and although one persons opinion is most likely not going to deter this development and especially my particular concerns. I will say that my husband and I will definitely not choose to enroll our son and future children in this school, or any school within a shopping complex and that is a high multi level building. We would rather be 'inconvenienced' and travel further to enroll them into what we believe is a safer school and one that is more more conducive to learning.

Hello,

I strongly object to the proposal to construct the new Santa Sophia Catholic College in the town centre at the Gables, amidst shops and other commercial entities. We should be keeping education and other learning activities away from commerce and marketing.

The NSW government 2019-20 budget has laid emphasis on green and open spaces and on vital infrastructure to support both new and growing communities. It is common knowledge and a proven fact that open spaces, playfields and grounds play a major contribution to the physical development of kids - creativity, collaboration and excellence are better developed and nurtured in an environment where kids have elbow room to thrive.

The state-of-the-art facilities envisaged by the Parramatta Diocese for Santa Sophia Catholic college can still be implemented if the school is built on its earlier proposed site of 40-46 Terry Road.

While a high rise school can be justified in population dense suburbs like Parramatta and Hornsby, to have the same concept in a Hills Shire suburb like Box Hill, which boasts of open spaces and acreage lots – is not the way to go. With our population booming, the kids of today will be confined to multi storeyed work spaces (and possibly homes) and this is another reason why their early, primary and secondary learning environments should give them a chance to spread their wings and connect to the environment.

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have called a ban on fast food shops operating within 400m of school. At a time when nearly 1/3rd of children aged 2-15 are overweight or obese, this message sends a strong message to young people and their families to cut down on fast food. While individual school are attempting to provide healthy food options in their canteens, this measure gets defeated by kids having access to fast food within the school precinct – and this is what the students of Santa Sophia Catholic college will be exposed to as well !

Whilst the new school might take a couple of years longer to start operating if built on the Terry Rd, let’s not lose sight of the long term gains, and the benefits both the students and the community will enjoy if the town centre is not reduced to accommodate the K-12 school.

I sincerely hope that my feedback on this major project is appreciated, and appropriate measures are taken for the greater good of the community.

Thank you & Regards,

I do not feel that this is a suitable locations for the school as
• By placing the school in this location, rather than the 11 h on Terry Rd Box Hill, you are placing a greater population density on that location which will include the shopping centre and housing.
• The School will be a part of a shopping centre where anyone will be able to walk around. There have already been incidents with people with evil intent towards children in this part of Sydney over the last few years and by placing the school in a shopping centre you are giving these predators easier access to children.
• The traffic, with multiple schools in close proximity plus the shopping centre will, have expected increase of 120 cars per hours which will create a great burden on the roads around this area. This includes a greater risk to pedestrians, especially children, which are heading to the schools and shopping centre.
• There is no outside grass area/ ovals for the kids to play and unwind at recess and lunch. Or to do PE classes without leaving the school. Boys especially need this outside time to burn off energy to then be able to focus better in class.
• The council grounds that they are talking about using will mean transporting the children every time they do PE classes or other outside activities. If able to walk to the council ovals the children will need to cross major roads in this area.
The use of council ovals will also increases costs as they need to hire the council ovals, as well as share the ovals with the other schools in the area, community groups, sporting clubs, etc.
• Since in the documents this Santa Sofia is described as a “dedicated Catholic School” or something to that effect, there is no chapel, church or pray space shown on the plans. This will mean busing the children to Our Lady of The Angels Church at Wellgate Ave Kellyville or some other church.
• There is no provision for adequate parking spaces for teachers, parents and visitors or is there enough Kiss and drop area.
• There is no room for the school to grow and expand should the need arise as there is no land around it.
• If the school was to remain at the original site the students would have outside areas to play and learn, there would be room for expansion and more chooses of outside courses and activities can be offered by the school.

Santa Sophia was to be built on Terry Road, Box Hill. The location of the school should never have been changed without consultation with the people, especially the people of the Parish Our Lady of the Angels. Terry Road offers wide open spaces for the students to use, The Gables would offer no such space for the students to use at their will. Having teenage students in the vicinity of a shopping centre would be detrimental to their studies and development. The people buying property in the area and enrolling their children into the feeder primary school have been misled. PLEASE PUT SANTA SOPHIA BACK TO THE TERRY ROAD LOCATION!

Whilst I do not have a problem with the educational side of SSCC, I certainly have a major issue with the location and footprint as I believe it will endanger the children. I also believe there are three major issues with the DA which makes the current application null and void.
Major issue number one
The DA refers to the use of the neighbouring sports fields as the school does not have sports fields. I have not been able to find any supporting documentation to indicate that an agreement exists between the school (SSCC), Hockey Australia (who will own the fields), Hills Council and Celestino (the developer). A DA cannot refer to an arrangement which does not exist or could potentially not exist in the future.
Major issue number two
The DA refers to a community feedback form, however THIS WAS NOT THE FORM THAT WAS PRESENTED TO US. We happened to keep a copy of our form and it is attached to this submission. Clearly, they have taken the original feedback form, obtained the answers and then formulated a new feedback form to ensure the answers better suit the objectives of the DA. Last time I checked this is called fraudulent and deceptive behavior and makes the DA void.
Major issue number three
The DA refers to the fact that the main objection is coming from the parish. It is a catholic school which means most pupils and parents are part of a catholic diocese (parish). It is the main criteria of being able to send your children to a catholic school. To use this as an argument is deceptive and misrepresents the community.

I also have numerous other major concerns regarding this DA, which are indicated below: -
1) This building is simply not suitable for the site and location. Whilst I understand the greater area will develop over years, the town center is only single story and to have a 5-story school looming over this seems crazy;
2) The drop off and pickup zones are on a main road, I simply cannot imagine my 4-year-old child getting him or herself to school safely (there is no parking remember);
3) The play area is on the roof, it is simply not practical nor safe to assume a 4-year-old will navigate this safely;
4) There is absolutely no disabled parking available. This means for example that my children’s grandparents will be unable to partake in school activities. The only disabled parking bay can ONLY be accessed via a boom gate. Bear in mind there are 1900+ students;
5) There are ONLY 12 drive through bays, which by their own admission say 24 bays are required;
6) There is insufficient staff parking, and absolutely no parent parking;
7) The DA assumes that the town center will provide parking, however I have been unable to sight any evidence that any agreement has been signed in this regard between SSCC, the shopping centre and Celestino. There is also no evidence to indicate that paid parking won’t be introduced in the future or that parents could be blocked from using town center parking in the future;
8) Being a high rise, there is an inherent risk to the children from:
a. Fire safely;
b. Bomb and terrorism;
c. Wild weather events;
d. Teen suicide;
9) By their own admission, SSCC do not know how the acoustics of the school will play out and what noise levels will be apparent during school hours;
10) The neighbouring apartment buildings not only pose a safety risk in terms of security, but how are this going to get built while school sessions are in progress;
11) In order to enter and exit the school, either for PE classes or arriving and leaving for the day requires ALL students to cross or navigate a main road;
12) Public sports fields are not easily secured from public access. Unfortunately, the catholic system is not so good at protecting children and it is impossible for 2 teachers to adequately supervise 30+ students on what is effectively a public facility;
13) I don’t believe sufficient analysis has taken place in terms of traffic impact and parking impacts on surrounds roads. 1900+ students is a lot of movement and I don’t believe this location is suited to this kind of concentration;

Santa Sophia was to be built on Terry Road, Box Hill. The location of the school should never have been changed without consultation with the people, especially the people of the Parish Our Lady of the Angels. Terry Road offers wide open spaces for the students to use, The Gables would offer no such space for the students to use at their will. Having teenage students in the vicinity of a shopping centre would be detrimental to their studies and development. The people buying property in the area and enrolling their children into the feeder primary school have been misled. I have 5 children whom I plan to send to Santa Sophia and purchased my property on Ceres Way in Box Hill with this in mind. PLEASE PUT SANTA SOPHIA BACK TO THE TERRY ROAD LOCATION!

Santa Sophia was to be built on Terry Road, Box Hill. The location of the school should never have been changed without consultation with the people, especially the people of the Parish Our Lady of the Angels. Terry Road offers wide open spaces for the students to use, The Gables would offer no such space for the students to use at their will. Having teenage students in the vicinity of a shopping centre would be detrimental to their studies and development. The people buying property in the area and enrolling their children into the feeder primary school have been misled. I have 5 grandchildren who would be attending Santa Sophia and my daughter purchased her property on Ceres Way in Box Hill with this in mind. PLEASE PUT SANTA SOPHIA BACK TO THE TERRY ROAD LOCATION!

Santa Sophia should be built in the land at Terry Road instead of in the middle of the shopping centre. My kids should be able to grow their faith and study in the best environment with a much bigger school grounds. Building Santa Sophia Catholic College as outlined in the plans is a huge mistake. There was no consultation with parents at all. I strongly oppose this. I am one among parents of the Our Lady of the Angels Parish Church who strongly object to this. PLEASE LISTEN TO US PARENTS. WE ARE ONLY LOOKING FOR THE BEST INTEREST OF OUR CHILDREN AND FUTURE GENERATION TO COME.

I would like to provide feedback on the proposed Santa Sophia Catholic College plans and I object to the building of the Santa Sophia College unless these issues are addressed. I would hope that prospective parents’ views, such as that of myself, would be taken into consideration and held of value.

Firstly, the welfare of the students within the school needs to be priority. As an educator myself, I cannot stress our child protection and safety obligations that need to be considered when designing a school. The proposed neighbouring apartment blocks are not positioned in a way that can ensure the privacy of our children whilst in the playground. If apartment windows will be facing on to the school grounds, child predators could easily take photos of our children or worse still, watch our children whilst playing in the playground. I would like to request either the repositioning of these buildings or the placement of windows being not on the side of the building facing the school playground.

Secondly, for the safety of the children, the kiss and drop zone needs to be lengthened to fit more cars in so to ease traffic congestion and traffic chaos. Most high school students would be dropped off and picked up via kiss and drop due to their age. Due to limited parking spots for parents on site, kiss and drop will also be used a great deal by parents from K -12. A shopping centre is proposed for right across the road from the kiss and drop zone. Surely this isn’t safe? Forward planning is needed now before it is too late to change these plans. The shopping centre entrance should not be on this side of the shopping complex adjacent to the kiss and drop zone either.

Thirdly, an overpass from the shopping centre to the school needs to be put in place to allow safe passage to and from the school to the car park. A lot of parents will be forced to park at the shopping centre, due to a lack of parking for parents on the school site. The roads surrounding the school, apartments and shopping complex will be quite congested.

In addition, the school is being built on quite a small area of land. The school students should therefore have priority over the use of the surrounding sporting fields. Children need space to run and be given opportunities to develop their gross motor skills. The teachers of the school should be able to do this readily and not be limited to the access they have to open spaces such as these. In regards to child welfare and issues with body image, the renaming of ‘Muscle Beach’ to Wellness Hub for example, would be more appropriate.

Lastly, being a Catholic school, I hope that provisions in the design have been made for a chapel. We cannot forget why parents are choosing to send to their child to a Catholic school as opposed to a public or private school.

Thank you for considering our family’s requests and concerns. Our children’s health and well-being should be paramount.

Yours sincerely

A concerned prospective parent from the local community.

- Location not suitable for school , Parking issues , Traffic issues ,

I am concerned for the wellbeing of future students of Santa Sophia College. I believe these students ought to be to be provided with the best possible campus to facilitate their learning. The proposed site for the college at the Gables Town Centre does not provide this environment, especially in comparison to the original site proposed for the school at Terry Road.

Children need space for physical play. At the proposed Gables site, students will not have access to their own recreational grounds, and will therefore have very limited access to recess and lunchtime sporting activities. A claustrophobic urban site encourages sedentary behaviour, use of electronic devices, etc. Being confined to their floor area without the opportunity to play-off excess energy outdoors will detract from students’ ability to concentrate in class, and will impose unnecessary extra stress on teaching staff. This is in contrast to the much larger originally proposed site for the school at Terry Road.

The “high-rise” Gables site also does not allow provision for future expansion and growth, which the much larger originally proposed Terry Road site allows for. Why constrain the growth prospects of the school and its capacity to meet the demand of the North-West’s growing population?

Whilst these are my primary objections, I know other locals will raise other similarly valid objections against this proposed site for the school. Fundamentally, it was never made clear to me or other locals why plans to build on the much more suitable Terry Road site were scrapped in favour of this sub-optimal site for the students of Santa Sophia College.