Schools in Canberra's north grew the fastest of all the ACT districts, new school census data has revealed.
The public primary schools in the north and Gungahlin network absorbed an extra 702 students compared to 2020.
The largest primary school in the territory is Harrison School, with 1277 preschool to year 6 students enrolled as of February this year.
The largest primary schools in the Catholic system are both in Gungahlin: Holy Spirit Primary School in Nicholls (843) and Mother Teresa School in Harrison (814).
St Mary Mackillop College has the most secondary enrolments with 1954 students across two Tuggeranong campuses.
St Bede's Primary School in Red Hill, which was spared from possible closure after a community campaign, had 136 students enrolled at the start of the year. However, the smallest school out of the Catholic systemic schools is St John Vianney's Primary School in Waramanga with 125 students.
Daramalan College is the largest independent school in the territory with 1444 year 7 to 12 students.
The ACT's newest public school, Evelyn Scott School in Denman Prospect, had 188 students enrolled with its largest cohort in preschool (64 students).
Margaret Hendry School in Taylor, which opened in 2019, was the fastest-growing established school with an extra 155 students enrolling in 2021, bringing the school population to 602 students.
Amaroo School employs the most teaching staff with 129.2 full-time equivalent staff, followed by Harrison School at 118. The school with the best staff-to-student ratio at the time of the census was Red Hill Primary School (17 students per teacher), followed by Miles Franklin Primary School (18 students per teacher).
The increase in north-side enrolments comes as the Education Directorate continues planning for new and expanded schools.
An expansion of the Gold Creek Senior School campus began last week, a project which will increase capacity by 200 students.
Next year a new primary school will open in Throsby and the Franklin Early Childhood School will expand to a preschool to year 6 school. New high schools are slated for Kenny and next to the Margaret Hendry School site.
However, ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said last week the directorate was still looking at options for expanding the Gungahlin and Dickson Colleges to cater for the booming population.
"The ACT government's made a commitment to expand colleges on the north side here so we're still just going through that planning work and what that might look like," Ms Berry said.
A shared zone between Gungahlin and Dickson Colleges and a one-way shared zone between North Ainslie and Ainslie Primary Schools were created this year to alleviate enrolment pressures in the north. The priority enrolment zone for the Kenny high school is yet to be announced.
