Facilities

Our Facilities Committee is a sub-committee of Governing Council. It develops the vision for school facilities, develops plans in consultation with our community and finally manages the implementation of agreed plans.

Over the past decade, major changes in facilities have occurred at Mount Gambier High School. Our developments have all been based on providing quality learning environments which are respectful of the efforts and aspirations of students and staff. The environments in which we work have an effect on how we feel about ourselves and our learning. Good facilities support learning in its many facets.

Our facilities developments have been based on a master plan which has been developed with our school community. The plan is designed to support the learning priorities in our site learning plan.

A feature of our facilities developments has been the extensive consultation processes. Our facilities committee works closely with our staff, students and parents to ensure that we are sourcing ideas which reflect the best thinking of our community. An example of this was the work we did with a landscape architect to interview our community to develop plans for our grounds. As a result of this, developments have occurred which reflect the aspirations of our community and which provide functional and aesthetically pleasing environments for learning and socialising. A beautiful school is a caring school.

Our community has also been very involved in the improvements in our environment. We hold regular working bees where up to 300 parents, teachers and students work together on weekends to paint, pave, build, garden and undertake a range of activities which not only improve our environments, but build the social connections of our community.

Our curriculum aims to personalise learning for our students by offering programmes which cater for the needs of the entire range of students. Some of our programmes enable students to be actively engaged in the creation of their own environments. Programmes such as Work Related Studies, Landscaping, and Building Trades enable students to engage in activities such as:

• installation of in-ground watering systems, building bike shelters, bus shelters, seating, sheds
• creation of murals, water feature, sculptures and art works inside and outside
• concreting
• gardens.

The focus of our master plan is to access all available resources to improve facilities. This includes major capital works programmes which attract government funding.

Examples of this are the $2m upgrade of the Administration building and the impending new Arts Centre

Recent facilities developments include:

• The Library/Resource Centre
• Senior school floor
• Digital Recording Studio
• Performing Arts Centre
• Lock up bike sheds
• The construction of horticulture/aquaculture work related studies area
• The Automotive Skills Centre (constructed by parents, teachers, service clubs)
• The Athletics Centre
• Home Economics
• Canteen
• Gym redevelopment/climbing wall
• Lockers
• Science laboratories
• Classrooms with Smart boards
• Indoor Cricket Centre/Turk Cricket pitches
• Netball/Tennis Courts
• Art works eg Reconciliation Sculpture
• Air conditioning/blinds throughout the school
• ICT facilities.

Future plans include:

• The building of a new Arts Centre, due for completion in 2009
• A throwing cage for discus, hammer throwing
• The completion of the linear arts “Front Fence” area
• Redevelopment of the photography studio
• Upgrades to computer facilities
• Upgrades to Technical Studies facilities
• Development of a commercial cookery facility
• The development of a new recycling facility to support very successful recycling processes
• Toilet upgrades