School shares campus with U3A students

THE Ballarat Specialist School Farm Campus is a place where young people can experience immersive learning, but a new demographic of hands-on students are set to share the site.

BSS has provided a section of land, in-kind, to University of the Third Age Ballarat, where a manual arts shed for adult students is being built.

The facility will be home to classes in woodwork, metalwork, jewellery making, mosaics, lino printmaking, felting, lead-lighting and more, and students will have space to store their ongoing projects.

Silver jewellery tutor Stephen Walsh said the shed is much anticipated.

“We’ve never felt permanent in a place,” he said. “When people walk into the space we’re using, they see a blanket over the manual arts equipment.

“But when we move into the new shed, it’s a permanent place. We can spread out, do what we want, and we expect people will look around and think, ‘I could do a class in this, or that.’

“The shed is big enough to run dual classes, and we have the porch outside.”

Discussions between BSS staff and U3A members began years ago, and farm campus deputy-principal Mat Gannon said the partnership makes sense.

“We have a lot of space, 16 acres, so we’ve always been chasing something like this, which benefits everybody,” he said.

“We’re a campus that’s open to the community, with a cafe on site, so more community involvement is good for our school. The more people that come through the cafe, the better learning there is for our students.

“We want them to mix with people of all ages, and sharing facilities with another group helps them transition to life in the community.”

U3A offers a range courses to retired or part-time working people over the age of 45 and has 1178 members locally.

Temporarily, manual arts classes have been taking place in a hut at Ballarat Airport, Eastwood Leisure Complex and Ballarat East Men’s Shed.

The adult education organisation is funding the construction and fit-out of the building at the Specialist School, which is a two-minute drive from U3A’s home base at Ballarat North Community Centre.

“Our relationship with Ballarat Specialist School could not be better,” U3A manager of the project Blake Gordon said. “They’ve been terrific.

“They see benefit for them, and we see benefit for us.”