New school a big draw, but pressure still on Brisbane State High
In 2025, Ellen Rigbye picked up her daughter Charlotte from a private school in Brisbane’s west and dropped her off at a public school over the river.
Charlotte, a competitive AFL player, has successfully secured selective entry to the city’s newest state school, Brisbane South State Secondary College (BSSSC) in Dutton Park.
“We went to the AFL Academy open night where they did a presentation about the school and the academy and it was really nice,” Ellen said.
BSSSC engraved opening in 2021 large fragments from surrounding secondary basins – Including approximately one-third of Brisbane State High School’s catchment area.
The school’s AFL program is in partnership with AFL Queensland and the Brisbane Lions and Charlotte, now in Year 10, said it was a huge hit among her friends.
The school’s other program of excellence, the Academy of Biomedical Science, attracts students interested in careers in medicine.
“There used to be a lot of people who went to State High and then left,” he said.
Enrollment data for February 2026 obtained by this imprint showed that BSSSC increased by 201 students this year – More than Mansfield State High School, which has grown the most of any established public school – when the first group of students reaches grade 12.
Charlotte said the school was not “as full as it could be” because the number of students in Year 7 was smaller than normal.
The school constitutes 94.8 percent of the total construction capacity with 1444 students.
Seleneah More, who was part of the now-defunct inner-south education coalition that helped shape public consultation on the new school, said it was a glaring mistake.
“The BSSSC’s aim was to ease enrollment pressure at Brisbane State High School, but it has yet to do that,” he said.
More, who is also a member of the West End Community Alliance, a grassroots community organization, said the community had “expressed concerns from the very beginning” about the issue.
“We have consistently warned that relocating the school outside the Brisbane State High School catchment, along with minor boundary changes that include schools such as Coorparoo Secondary School and Yeronga State High School, will not solve the problem,” he said.
Enrollments at Brisbane State High School in 2026 have decreased by 19 students, rather than an increase of around 100 students as Department for Education modelling predicted.
It increased by 48 students between 2024 and 2025, and by 44 the previous year.
State High still exceeds its stated resident capacity by 19 percent, or 588 students. The education department has previously said it uses “scheduling efficiencies that allow operation above student enrollment capacity.”
Approximately 92 percent of students in the State High School catchment area attend the school, and another 1,000 places are open to selective entry for programs of academic, musical and athletic excellence.
Charlotte said the number of non-departmental students at BSSSC was already falling in the younger grades, and her mother Ellen said the school was becoming increasingly strict about such placements.
“In reality, the route to entry is through the AFL academy or the biomedical science academy,” he said.
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