Term 4 Week 3

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On behalf of the School Board and our Building Committee, I am delighted to announce the building of a new facility that will cater for our three-stream school, in 2024, with all the facilities that are required for a modern school.

Earlier this year, we had released this concept. This related to knocking down our current admin building (see the red line) and rebuild a three-storey structure (blue line).

WHAT WILL BE IN THE NEW BUILDING?

On the ground floor:

• Reception area
• Improved student first aid area
• Meeting rooms
• Administration offices (Principal, Deputy, APRIM, Finance Officer, PE office)

On the first floor:

• Three classrooms for Year 1
• A large breakout area for the Year 1 & 2 classes to share (similar to what is now outside the Reception classes)
• Four tutorial rooms
• New staff room and facilities

On the second floor:

• Three classrooms for Year 3
• A large breakout area for the Year 3 & 4 classes to share (similar to what is now outside the Reception classes)
• Two tutorial rooms

STAGE 2

A second stage of refurbishment will commence once the new building is completed.

Refurbishments will include:

1. Converting, what is now our Transition classes (Mid-Year Receptions), into one Year 1 class and a breakout space which will join the new building.  This will include removing the staircase from the library to the first floor.
    
2. Converting, what is now the science room, into three purpose-built Music Tutorial rooms, spaces that are long overdue in our school.
    
3. Converting the current Year 1 class, in the convent and the room directly above (in the Year 6 area) into 6 tutorial rooms.
    
4. When this is completed, the old Year 3 classes will be specialist teaching areas for Science, Art and Italian.

HOW DID WE GET TO THIS POINT

In the background, for the last year, we have been working on the Strategic Plan for our school, which also includes work on our school’s Master Plan.

A Master Plan gives a long-term view of the facilities of our school and attempts to capture our dreams and realities as we look towards the future.

Many years ago, the school moved towards being a three-stream school (ie three classes of each year level).  This historical decision was made as the school could not cater for the children baptised in our Parish.  Soon after, a third class of Reception students began in our school.  Over time, all year levels will eventually have 3 classes and this time will arrive at the beginning of 2024.  At this time, we will not have enough classes for all our students and the required specialist teaching spaces.

The School Board have been looking at many options, the first of which was the buying of more land, but unfortunately this has not been possible.  So, as we moved from “dreaming to reality” we began working with the Catholic Education SA (CESA) and Edge Architects.  Many options were discussed but we believe the best option is to reclaim much wasted space around our current admin building, by knocking it down and replacing it with a three storey building.  In this way we could reclaim much unused space on the first and second stories by joining the building to the buildings around it, while leaving an under-croft area on the ground floor which can be used for play.