Year 7 building program reaches milestone

Education Minister Peter Collier has officially opened the first of 29 building projects that will cater for year 7 students who move into secondary schools for the first time next year.

  • First year 7 building project opened at Wanneroo Secondary College

  • New facilities in four schools already completed well ahead of schedule

  • 29 schools receiving additional facilities to cater for year 7 students who will move to secondary schools in 2015

Education Minister Peter Collier has officially opened the first of 29 building projects that will cater for year 7 students who move into secondary schools for the first time next year.

Mr Collier visited Wanneroo Secondary College this morning where he toured a $4.3million upgrade, which includes five new classrooms, a science laboratory, science preparation area, staffroom and computer hub.

The Minister also announced that three other schools had already completed their year 7 builds well ahead of schedule. Carine Senior High School has finished a $5.1million extension, Broome Senior High School's $7.8million building program is ready and Byford Secondary College's $5.2million project was built at the same time as the school's first stage last year.

Mr Collier said he was pleased with the progress of the State Government's $229.6million year 7 capital works program.  Royalties for Regions has provided $42.6million for seven of the projects at regional schools.

"Next year public secondary schools will have almost 18,000 extra students so 29 schools will need the additional or refurbished classrooms, science laboratories, art studios and other specialist facilities that are under construction," he said.

"This is vital to give year 7 students access to the specialist subject teaching and facilities best suited for the new Australian Curriculum."

Last week the Auditor General released an independent report into the year 7 transition which found work was on track and the State Government had a robust plan in place. As well as the new buildings, public secondary schools will need to employ about 1,000 extra teachers next year to cater for year 7 students.

The State Government has invested $22.4million in teacher training through the innovative Switch program so that primary school teachers can qualify to teach in secondary schools. Since Switch was introduced a year ago, nearly 900 teachers have expressed interest and more than 370 teachers will complete graduate certificate courses by the end of the year.

Some teachers are also being invited to complete short courses - for example primary physical education teachers are getting hands-on experiences in teaching secondary physical education.

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