Community engagement

We are committed to engaging our stakeholders as part of our work. Our teams work closely with school principals, local community members and representative groups, as well as other key stakeholders to ensure we keep school communities and neighbouring residents informed throughout all stages of our major upgrade projects and new builds.

The department follows the Engagement Institute’s IAP2’s Public Participation Spectrum to assist with the planning and selection of public participation methods on our projects. For school infrastructure projects, the "Inform" and "Consult" levels of the IAP2 spectrum are primarily used which allows for effective community engagement while ensuring projects stay on track within the constraints of timing, budget, and regulatory requirements.

In planning

The department will engage with relevant stakeholders during planning for a project. For more information see the the Stakeholder and Community Participation Plan.

When engaging with neighbours, the department considers what impact the development will have, including issues such as privacy, solar access, views and visual impacts, overshadowing, noise generation, hours of operation, traffic and parking impacts.

Engagement methods for major upgrades and new schools, including preschools can include:

face to face meetings and briefings with key stakeholders
community information sessions
communications such as project updates and works notifications
updates on project webpages.

A Project Reference Group is formed for major projects to provide input from an operational, educational, change and logistics perspective into the planning phases of a project. The Project Reference Group is an advisory forum and members of the group include the project team, architects and other specialists, school leadership and school community representatives.

During construction

Advanced warning of activities and planned disruptions are provided to allow stakeholders and community members to plan for the impacts and make alternative arrangements where required.

Regular updates regarding the construction program and significant milestones are provided to the school community and neighbouring properties throughout construction.

Notifications are primarily distributed through letterbox drops, the school’s communication channels and uploaded to the project webpage on the School Infrastructure website. If you have a project you would like to be updated on, please visit the project webpage and sign up for the mailing list there.

On occasion, department representatives may door knock neighbours to hand deliver notifications and provide advance notice of some works.

Enquiries and complaints

Enquiries and complaints about school infrastructure projects can be made by emailing schoolinfrastructure@det.nsw.edu.au or calling 1300 482 651 between 9 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday.

For projects in construction, a 24-hour contact number for the project site manager is displayed at the site for any urgent issues that need to be addressed on site outside of business hours.

We aim to reply to complaints within 10 working days. If more time is needed, complainants will be contacted to advise when a response can be expected.

More information

The NSW Department of Education’s Stakeholder and Community Participation Plan 2024 identifies how and when stakeholders, including the community, can participate in the planning process for new schools and major school upgrade projects undertaken by the department under Division 5.1 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (EP&A Act) 1979.

To learn more about our major projects, use our interactive map. You can also contact our Community Engagement team.

We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.

Community engagement

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