STUDENTS at St Bede’s Catholic College near Maitland are “buzzed” to have moved from their temporary classrooms to the school’s first state-of the-art building, one of four to be raised during what will be six years of construction.
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College principal John Murphy welcomed guests on Monday to what has become a Chisholm landmark.
“It was a tremendously proud moment,” he said.
“The students have been really enjoying the contemporary, open, innovative, flexible learning spaces that are more realistic for what they can expect in the workforce –they won’t be sitting in rows in silence, there will be lots of project based learning in groups.
“But there’s also not much use in having these learning spaces without our passionate, hard-working teachers.”
The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle opened St Bede’s at the start of this year.
The 117 year seven students and 11 permanent teaching staff have been based in a “flexible learning village” of demountables, equivalent to seven classrooms.
They moved at the start of last term into the three-storey Benedict Building, which Mr Murphy said was valued at more than $10 million.
The government provided $3.5 million through its Capital Grants Program.
Mr Murphy said the school was likely to continue using the demountables as it grows, particularly in 2020, and may even add extra temporary facilities.
Each grade is capped at 120 students, but Mr Murphy said this would rise to 180 when the Dominic Building opens at the start of 2021, or possibly before, depending on demand.
The McAuley Building is expected to open the start of 2022 and the Marian Building at the start of 2023.