Welcome to the second issue of Making Every School a Great School, where we will regularly share information with you on the department’s program for modernising and improving schools. We are interested in your feedback on these new facilities and what outcomes they are delivering for your students, teachers and the wider school community. So if you have a story to share we’d love to hear from you.

A building for students, teachers, parents and the future

Students, teachers and parents at one of Australia’s southernmost schools have new, flexible learning facilities they say will stand the test of time – and the elements.

Thanks to Australian Government Building the Education Revolution (BER) funding of more than $2.1 million, the new Josephite Learning Centre, at Geeveston’s Sacred Heart Catholic School in southern Tasmania, is supporting improved learning and teaching. It is also providing a much-needed facility for the local community.

Principal Stuart Kelly said the new easily accessible building, has been outstanding value for money.

“We thought: spend it where it counts and that’s on our learning facilities,” Mr Kelly said.

“The Josephite Learning Centre will be a building that for the next 30, 40, 50 years can be used in any capacity. Everything in it moves: nothing is permanent, everything is on wheels. It takes five minutes to transform that classroom into a large meeting area that can fit our whole school and parents in for assemblies.”

Left: External view of the Josephite Learning Centre. Top right: A group of students in one of the flexible learning spaces. Bottom right: The Josephite Learning Centre at twilight. View more photos in our gallery

And Mr Kelly said the building means staff and students have also said goodbye to some classroom staples—beanies and scarves.

“Our learning centre is warm, comfortable and inviting, and creates all sorts of possibilities for our school that we didn’t have before. Our facilities were pretty shabby before and we had teachers working in beanies and scarves. We couldn’t expect our children to be fully engaged in their learning when it wasn’t a comfortable learning environment to start with.”

In Geeveston the average temperature at 9 am is less than 6°C and it rains most school days, keeping students indoors. With large double-glazed windows and other passive heating and cooling technologies, the new learning centre is warm and inviting. In fact, because of its excellent energy efficiency and good natural light, heating and lighting are rarely needed.

“We now have a facility where a third of the school can comfortably be inside during wet times and still enjoy themselves. They can move around and not have to sit at their desk in a tiny little classroom,” Mr Kelly said.

“With the hall and an undercover centre and the new centre, we can split the school in three and have all sorts of activities running at recess and lunchtime.”

The centre also has some impressive digital capabilities, with students now able to link up with their northernmost counterparts at the Pularumpi School in the Tiwi Islands.

Mr Kelly said the more than $2.1 million in funding received for the new building and other improvements/refurbishments came along at the right time, giving the school the chance to build a facility that would complement its shift to team-teaching practices.

“Our teachers have lots of gifts and talents and we share those talents around. They plan together and take joint responsibility for students. We try to break down the barrier of one teacher and one class to make learning more interpersonal.”

Designed by Australian architects, the Josephite Learning Centre has recently received a High Commendation at the Victorian Educational Planning Council and was featured on the World Architecture News website.

Sacred Heart Catholic School received $2,010,000 million under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century element and $125,669 under the National School Pride element of the BER program.

Tell us your story

The Australian Government is delivering historic reform and record funding to Australia's education system.

This includes the largest rebuilding and modernisation of schools in Australia’s history with over 23,500 BER projects at almost 9500 schools.

Nationally to date, the Government has awarded over $1 billion in funding for 288 TTC projects, benefitting over 900 schools across Australia with more than 131 TTCs already built; approximately 2700 schools with chaplain services; almost 2700 schools participating in the Smarter Schools National Partnerships and over half a million new computers installed.

• Do you have a story you’d like to share about your school?
• Tell us how your school’s project has made a difference to students, teachers, parents or people with special needs.
• How is your school community using the new facilities?
• Are there environmental sustainability benefits as a result of your new project?

If you have a project you would like to share, please send the details to ezines@deewr.gov.au