Works soon on school upgrade

Students who attend Rasmussen campus of Horsham Primary School next year will have the use of two new general classrooms and a dedicated art room as part of a $2.128-million upgrade.

The State Government has announced modular-building designer Fleetwood will have architectural responsibilities for the upgrade, which will start with demolition of ageing structures during term-three school holidays.

School principal Chris Walter said the project would be timely and appropriate to meet growing enrolment and needs at the campus.

“It’s going to be a much needed upgrade, providing us with modern facilities and more flexibility in organising classes,” he said.

“It’s going to be a very welcome improvement to the learning environment at the Rasmussen campus.

“We have 125 children so far enrolled there for next year and the enrolment has been continually increasing each year.

“We’re predicting we might break the 130 barrier in a couple of years.”

Horsham Primary School, which also includes Horsham 298 campus in Baillie Street, has an overall enrolment of 415.

Mr Walter said the works program would involve minimal disruption to student learning and had a timeline to be finished by the end of the year.

“A lot of planning work has been going on in the background and as a modular project much of the building happens off site and is dropped in and pieced together,” he said.

“It’s a pretty impressive schedule. It’s a 48week project from start, involving initial contact, to finish. Demolition takes about 12 to 14 weeks.”

Labor Member for Western Victoria Jaala Pulford, in announcing the project architect, said the project included general-purpose classrooms, art room, store and toilets.

She said the government had invested $6.1-billion for 1400 school upgrades, supporting an estimated 7500 Victorian construction jobs.

She said under the government building program, 100 new schools would open by 2026.

“We’re making sure our schools have the best facilities, our classrooms have the best teachers and every child is given every chance to succeed,” Ms Pulford said.

Mr Walter said a challenge confronting schools during the COVID-19 pandemic was helping parents to prepare children for enrolment.

“There has been a fair amount of frustration based on not being able to do tours as usual and in some cases we can only assume parents are getting appropriately organised,” he said.

“We will have school-tour arrangements in place during term three and urge parents to contact the school and go to our website or Facebook pages for information. They can also talk to the kindergartens if needed.”

“A lot of planning work has been going on in the background and as a modular project much of the building happens off site and is dropped in and pieced together” – Chris Walter