Ballajura Community College to become senior high school

5/6/96

Education Minister Colin Barnett today announced that Ballajura Community College would become a senior high school, catering for students up to Year 12.

At the school today, the Minister said construction of the $5.95 million second stage of the college, currently catering up to Year 9, was now well under way.

He said a third stage would follow, to complete the $23 million campus which would be a showcase for Western Australian education.

The current work was due to be completed in time for the start of June 1997, when the school was expected to cater for about 1,250 students.

"Ballajura Community College has been acknowledged at State, national and international forums as a site of excellence," Mr Barnett said.

Additions will include a new administration and student services block, two general teaching blocks, a library/resource centre and a tiered lecture theatre.

New centres for technology, enterprise and design will incorporate manual arts, home economics, business education and computing.

The building, now used as an administration centre, will be converted for art and craft studies and the area which temporarily houses design and technology classes will be refurbished as a science block.

Mr Barnett said the school was unique in the Government schooling system in WA because of the contribution made by the local community in the development of its educational philosophy and design.

Staff at Ballajura were also testing and monitoring approaches to students' learning.

"These include the continuation of teaching literacy (reading, writing etc) well into secondary school, applying technology across a range of subjects and exploring links between subjects such as science, environmental studies and English," Mr Barnett said.

He said Stage Two planning began in 1995 in response to the unprecedented enrolment rate which saw 650 students at the school in the first year of operation.

Students numbers were expected to rise from 950 to between 1,250 and 1,300 in 1997.

The first intake of Year 10 students would be next year.

The school was expected to cater for about 2,000 students by the year 2000.

The Minister said the contract for the Stage Two additions had been let to George A Esslemont and Son Building Contractors, which would move on to the site to the south and east of the existing school buildings in the middle of this month.

The additional buildings had been designed by Donaldson and Warn Architects, of Northbridge.

Media contact: Carolyn Vicars 222 9699