Redevelopment puts Bellbrae at the forefront of education

BELLBRAE Primary School’s stage one redevelopment is complete, with students moving into new facilities to finish off the year.

Four years of campaigning undertaken by principal Adrian Waters and members of the school council has paid off with grade five and six students starting term four in the new double-storey building.

Under the initial stage, the school has welcomed the opening of new learning spaces including science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) facilities as well as six classrooms, completed seven weeks ahead of schedule.

The second stage of the $11.48 million upgrade will deliver a competition-grade stadium and oval set to be completed by mid-2022.

Assistant principal Louise Kahle said the temporary classrooms had been removed from the middle of the school as senior students look to complete their education from the new building.

“We are at the forefront of STEM education and the new build has designated spaces to learn from,” she said.

“We are also big on physical learning and we will soon have an indoor stadium which will be a good experience for the kids especially in the wet weather.”

Ms Kahle said the school will also tie in a wellbeing hub under the second stage of development.

After experiencing disjointed learning over the past two years as a result of changing COVID-19 restrictions, Ms Kahle said students were looking forward to using the new facilities.

“We put the senior students in the building because they have been here for a long time especially the grade 6 students, they will only have six months to enjoy the new space and complete their education in,” she said.

“There has been a lot of uncertainty due to COVID-19 so once we told Grade 5 and 6 students, they were pretty pumped for the first day of term four.”

The Victorian Government first allocated $9.1 million to the redevelopment in the 2019-20 State Budget.

A further $2.38 million contribution was made last May to upgrade the schools’ water and sewage site services.

Before the redevelopment, Bellbrae Primary School’s newest building was constructed in 2011.

Under stage one, the school council and architect decided the original school building would be slightly modified and remain part of the new development.

“I think that this really puts us at the forefront of education in the area by having really impressive learning spaces and wonderful teachers and families to go along with it,” Ms Kahle said.