Students and staff of Kerang South public school are very excited about the new building that has just been completed.
The smell of a brand new building lingers as staff acquaint themselves with the some of the gadgets that are a part of the new development, along with having a more spacious work environment.
Planning for the new facilities started in 2021 costing $2.195 million.
Building cost increases during COVID-19 necessitated a further $242,000 to be added to keep the original plans on track.
Some of the features of the new building include dedicated workspaces for visiting specialists, such as speech therapists and occupational therapists, to work with children.
School principal Lyn Veall said when allowed access, at the beginning of the term, staff took students through the building, before there was furniture or anything in the building.
“The kids were just so excited, we never dreamed that we would get something so beautiful,” Ms Veall said.
“You always want the best for the children, and we made the best of the old building, we made it look bright and cheerful, now to have this is wonderful.
“The old building is now being refurbished as well, that will have a tutoring room and meeting/small group room, so there is lots of little rooms and spaces for children to work with aides or specialist teachers.
“There were two classrooms in there and the wall is being knocked out and that will become a double prep room, even though they are the smallest people in our school, it allows them to have the floor space for their play-based learning.
“Traditional size classrooms just don’t cater for the various spaces needed such as a chill-out corner for children with sensory needs.”
Although the old building will have the old facade, it will be completely refurbished internally.
Designers went to the added effort to include materials from the demolished part of the building on the remaining building to keep the 1960s look intact.
The new building is not just an administrative building but also has learning spaces including a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) space.
Ms Veall said the new building had allowed the school to have facilities that were now required in schools but were not originally built in schools.
“What this building project has enabled is plenty of space to do all the things that we need to do,” she said.
“When you are teaching there isn’t time to be moving desks around and changing spaces to suit the needs of the lesson, you need your spaces set up and ready to go and that’s what we’ve got, spaces for everyone and everything.
“The kids are loving having nice facilities, they look after things here, they have always been good kids and just to see the look on their faces with all the new things is great.
“All kids should have state of the art learning facilities, I love the heritage buildings, but the inside and the facilities that the kids have should be modern and up to date.”
