All government primary and secondary schools, including Prep/Foundation to Year 9 and multi-campus schools have school zones. This does not include schools with specific enrolment criteria including English Language Schools and Select Entry Schools. Specialist schools also do not have school zones and have special enrolment criteria.
Designated neighbourhood schools are generally the public school within closest proximity to the student’s permanent residential address, unless the Minister for Education or Regional Director has restricted the zone of the school. Closest proximity is calculated as the nearest school by straight line distance in metropolitan areas (including Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo), or the nearest school by shortest practical route (in regional areas).
School zones were produced in GDA94 VicGrid projection (EPSG: 3111) using locations that represent the front of the school or driveway access. Voronoi polygons define the measure of straight-line distance and calculations using road classes 0 to 7 in the VicMap Roads dataset were used to define the measure of shortest practical route.
School zones defined as metropolitan have taken preference over school zones of regional schools where they interface. A small number of school zones have been restricted by the Minister for Education to support schools in managing their enrolments. Some school zones have been aligned with structural and geographic barriers recognising the significant accessibility issues they impose.
School zones are reviewed annually and updated as government school provision changes. The school zones ZIP file consists of distinct spatial datasets for primary school zones and school zones for each year of secondary school, acknowledging the different year levels offered by schools. The spatial datasets can be used in conjunction with the school locations CSV file also available on data.vic.gov.au. School zones have been published on the findmyschool.vic.gov.au website.
The Victorian government school zones are intended to be relied on by parents and families for the purposes of making enrolment decisions for their children. They should not be relied on for making property purchase decisions, or by any party other than parents and families seeking to enrol their child in a government school.