Victoria’s first vertical government school opened its doors today, providing inner city families with a new state-of-the-art primary school.
The five-storey school designed by Architects Hayball Pty Ltd and built by ADCO Construction has modern teaching and learning spaces as well as facilities that the community can share.
The new school, located on Ferrars Street, will cater for more than 500 students from Prep to Year 6.
Together with South Melbourne Park Primary School opening in 2019, the new schools will accommodate more than 1,000 students entering school over the next five years.
South Melbourne Primary School is one of 11 new schools opening across the state this week and one of 21 that have opened over the last two years.
Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, Minister for Education James Merlino and Member for Albert Park Martin Foley, visited the new South Melbourne Primary School today to mark the occasion.
“Every Victorian child deserves access to a great school that prepares them to thrive in the 21st century so we’re getting on with the job by building new schools and upgrading existing facilities across the state,” Andrews, said.
“The state’s first vertical government school will provide a stimulating learning environment that will unlock the kind of critical and creative thinking our young people will need for the future.”
Hayball’s director, Richard Leonard, said innovative school design is showing how the physical – as well as the pedagogical – landscape is shifting.
“A trial and error approach is often the only way to get the more complex and innovative models working in the education space,” Leonard told The Educator.
Leonard said the quality of the work being done in terms of designing innovative learning spaces was encouraging and that he saw such efforts representing a “new direction” for education.
“Part of that is due to organisations like Learning Environments promoting the debate, and also governments and education systems locking into more innovative discussions around education, and what it means for facilities,” he said.
“So I think we’re really seeing a change in the climate and a groundswell…of a whole new direction for education.”
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