BUILDING UNDER WAY AT ST MARY’S
ST MARY’S College marked the beginning of construction on the school’s new auditorium and cultural centre yesterday with a sod turning.
The total floor area of the two-storey building will be 2882 square metres, with the auditorium alone spanning 1558 square metres and seating 1356 people.
St Mary’s College principal Michael Newman said he was excited about the expansion and hoped it would be finished by November.
“It’s our first expansion in a number of years,” Mr Newman said.
“It has two storeys. The top storey will be a teaching and learning space.
“The auditorium main area will cater for full-college assemblies, provide state-ofthe-art lecture rooms for educational purposes and learning demonstrations and … have tiered seating.
“With that will be a small kitchen area and an archives display showing the whole great history of St Mary’s.
“The second floor underneath will lead out onto the oval. It will have a gymnasium and weights room and some change sheds for the boys.
“It’s a wonderful complex. We hope to have it done at the end of the year, and it’s on track at this stage.”
The school announced stage two of the project which will be built next to the auditorium and include a number of classrooms for arts music and drama.
“(There will be) some modern classrooms which will then lead into the hall, so it becomes a whole cultural complex,” Mr Newman said.
Mr Newman said the significant capital investment was an important component of the College Master Plan, enabling the school to meet its student growth needs.
“The reason for our expansion is to provide better facilities for the boys,” he said.
“Particularly better teaching and learning facilities.
“But also we have grown as a school.
“And with the new ATAR there are more subjects the students can do, so that means we need to have more classrooms.”