By Casey Neill
The disused Doveton North Primary School site is now home to a thriving new school.
Ilim College opened its doors in Rowan Drive in January this year, with 36 students.
It’s already grown to about 44 and is adding roughly one new student each week.
Their backgrounds range from Turkish to Afghani, Lebanese, Indonesian, Bosnian, Albanian, Sri Lankan and Somalian and they travel from as far as Springvale and Officer.
Principal Suleyman Kor said the Islamic school would accommodate about 1200 students when all buildings were completed, but that could be in 10 years’ time.
There’s room for about 100 students at the moment, in portable classrooms.
Mr Kor hopes the first new building will be finished by the end of the year.
The school caters to primary school aged-children but Mr Kor is looking to apply for licensing to expand into secondary.
He said the school would grow by one year level at a time.
Mr Kor said the Turkish community started Ilim College in 1995 and the school has 2000 students in the northern suburbs, plus more in Sydney and Adelaide.
The Journal News reported in 2014 that Ilim bought the 20,420 square metre site for $4.2 million.
Mr Kor said developing the abandoned site was a good thing for the community.
“The area does need schools,” he said.
He’s heard anecdotally that house prices have been going up since the school opened.
Ilim has connected with other local schools in the area, including Holy Family Catholic School.
“We’re looking at holding interschool sports with them,” he said.
Holy Family will use Ilim’s hall once it’s up and running.
“And they’ve got tennis courts,” he said.
Mr Kor said Ilim was looking to host seminars.
“Some of the migrant families are very isolated,” he said.
“Isolation definitely is killing people in this country.
“Becoming a community link is definitely our main aim.”
