Artist impression of what a new school in Fortitude Valley could look like. It will also support the expansion West End State School to meet enrolment demand. Inner-city parents have long held concerns over how existing schools – which couldn't physically expand – would cope with hundreds of extra students due to rapid growth in the number of apartments being built in the area. The new high schools will be the first in inner-city Brisbane since 1963. The LNP closed the Fortitude Valley State School while in government, and it was saved from being sold by the Palaszczuk government in 2015. It has since sat empty.

Artist impression of what a new school in Fortitude Valley could look like. Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said West End State School had grown in five months, according to figures from day eight of the 2017 term. "The majority of the children who make up for that growth are children who are living in apartments. Artist impression of what a new school in Fortitude Valley could look like. "We have got to address this astronomical growth by providing additional schools in communities that are experiencing such rapid growth."

Ms Trad, also the member for South Brisbane, said the government had bought a site parallel to West End State School on Horan Street, which would be used for new classrooms. Brisbane will get its first new inner-city schools since 1963. Credit:AFR West End State School principal Kim McNamara said the school's enrolments were "through the roof". "I know my community are going to be really excited to hear that we're getting a second site," she said. Ms McNamara said about 52 per cent of the school's students lived in apartments in the area.

"You only have to look across the skyline at night time to see how many more of those are coming up," she said. Ms Trad said there were a "couple of options" for the location of the new state high school in the inner-south but could not reveal what they were until further discussions were held. "But we are very confident that an additional site will be secured within the current catchment of Brisbane State High School," she said. Education Minister Kate Jones said Brisbane State High School was the largest state high school in Australia. "The population growth that we have seen in the inner-south of Brisbane we know can sustain two high schools," Ms Jones said.

Ms Jones said the new schools at Fortitude Valley and in the inner-south would be built with a capacity of 1200 to 1500 each. Ms McNamara said West End State School was currently at 952 students and was expected to hit 1000 before the end of 2017 and into the "1100s" in the next couple of years. The expansion will cater for 1500 students. Ms Palaszczuk said the investment would create more than 1500 jobs and cater for enrolment pressure within five kilometres of the CBD. When asked where the money was coming from, Ms Palaszczuk said all would be revealed in the state budget on Tuesday.

Loading "This is what royalties are used for, royalties are used to put back into areas such as education and health," she said. "Because we've seen strong exports over the last financial year, my government has been able to deliver."