'If I could fly it'd be perfect': The glitch with Melbourne's school zones

That’s when we pass Seabrook Primary, a school the six-year-old can't attend because he lives outside its zone.

A glitch in Victoria’s enrolment rules means Eliott has to travel 10 kilometres by car every morning to access his “neighbourhood” school, Altona Green Primary.

“Sometime it takes us 40 minutes, sometimes it takes 38 minutes,” the grade 1 student says.

“On the highway it’s a bit slow because there are lots of cars.”

As the crow flies, Eliott lives a kilometre from his school.

But a sprawling wetland separates his Point Cook home from the schoolyard and there’s no direct road access.

It’s a scenario that plays out across Melbourne, a city where invisible lines hike up property prices, spark grassroots community campaigns and upend many families’ lives.

The Department says it may take into account major geographic features including rivers and creeks when determining enrolment boundaries.

But The Age has spoken to families who say eight-lane highways, streams, golf courses and even an RAAF base have been ignored when they’ve been allocated a school.

Sometimes the so-called closest school is not that close at all.

As we grind to a halt on Point Cook Road in Melbourne’s west, Eliott’s father Pablo Feruglio struggles to contain his frustration.

“The policy is designed so families go to the school that is closest to them,” he says.

“But no one has looked at how families access that school. If I could fly it would be the perfect school.”

Every metropolitan school has an enrolment boundary, which is calculated using a straight line, or how the crow flies.

These lines are drawn up using Voronoi polygons (a shape that reflects the halfway point between a school and surrounding schools) and mapping software.

When enrolments soar and a school nears capacity, more restrictive enrolment zones are put into place. These bar students from attending the school if they live outside the zone.

The Department says these zones are calculated by considering a family’s distance and access to a school.

On the other side of town, in the north-eastern suburb of Bellfield, Rebecca Armstrong is also exasperated.

Her daughter Olive, who starts prep next year, has been assigned a state school that is not the most convenient.

While Charles La Trobe P-12 College's Olympic Village campus in Heidelberg West might be the closest school as the crow flies, the busy Bell Street stands between the family’s home and the school.

“I would like her to be able to walk to school but it’s too dangerous,” she says.

She says the most convenient school is Ivanhoe Primary. Unfortunately, she lives a few houses outside its zone.

Joe Hurley, an urban planning expert at RMIT, says the current rules can lead to perverse allocations of students to schools.

“The closest school may not be the easiest school to get to,” he says

He says if the department wants to encourage families to walk, cycle or catch public transport to school they should allocate the closest school based on travel along these routes.

“The way they do it at the moment is a very simple process, it’s uncomplicated and unarguable,” he says.

“You are either in the zone or not. There’s no ‘but this bus service is better than that bus service, or I ride through this park so it is quicker this way.”

Pablo fired off emails to department bureaucrats and argued that his son should be allowed to attend Seabrook Primary.

“We are concerned that this situation will negatively impact on the education of our son and make our family life extremely challenging,” he wrote.

He also sent them maps of his daily commute to prove that it was the most convenient school.

But his pleas were unsuccessful.

“They told me about their straight line policy. They draw a line on the map, and if you are on one side you go to school A, and if you are on the other side you go to school B.”

The family has tested out different routes and modes of transport.

Walking to school takes 37 minutes and cycling takes 20 minutes. These options are not viable because Pablo and his wife have to drop off their daughter to childcare and arrive at work shortly after 9am.

An alternative route by car takes them past Carranballac P-9 College, another school they are zoned out of.

According to a department spokesman, the current policy strikes a balance between ensuring families can attend the local school and also have the option of enrolling at other schools when there is room.

“There are some historical anomalies and quirks in school boundaries, so the system is not completely uniform across the state, yet the existing boundaries are well understood at a local level,” he says.

Pablo says he’s not chasing a better school.

He’s impressed by the teachers at Altona Green Primary and Eliott is happy.

“A lot of families try to change schools because of the reputation,” he says.

“These are all good schools. This is purely about logistics.”