Title: School design talk Q&A – Fitzroy Gasworks (Senior Campus) (interim name) – Transcript
Producer: Victorian School Building Authority
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School Design Talk - Q&A
Fitzroy Gasworks (Senior Campus)
(interim name)
Webinar 22 July
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VSBA School Design Talk
Fitzroy Gasworks (Senior Campus) (interim name)
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A PowerPoint slide shows a render of what the exterior of the Fitzroy Gasworks Level 3 Terrace will look like. The slide show also has the logos for the Victorian Government and the Victorian School Building Authority. The video of the webinar shows those who are speaking.
Chris Millard: Thank you for joining us. My name is Chris Millard, I’m the campus principal and MC for this school design talk about our new campus for senior secondary students from Collingwood College and Fitzroy High School opening in term 1, 2022. I’d like to begin by acknowledging the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land where we are building this new campus. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and those who will emerge from great schools like this one. I extend that respect to other elders and Koori people joining us this evening.
Our campus is being delivered by the Victorian School Building Authority - the VSBA - on the former Fitzroy Gasworks site on Queen's Parade, and tonight we'll explore about how the new campus design will further enhance our senior program and benefit our students.
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MC
Chris Millard Campus Principal, Fitzroy Gasworks (Senior Campus), (interim name)
Panel
Sam Luck Principal, Collingwood College
Linda Mitchell Principal, Fitzroy High School
Wayne Alford Director, Major Projects, VSBA
Anne Vella Senior Project, Officer Major Projects, VSBA
Paul Thatcher Architect, GHDWoodhead
Martin Palmer Architect, GHDWoodhead
Alexandra Griffith Architect, Grimshaw.
Chris Millard: I'm joined by my colleagues; Sam Luck - principal of Collingwood College, Linda Mitchell - principal of Fitzroy High School, and the project design team; Wayne Alford - Director of Major Projects for VSBA, Anne Vella - Senior Project Officer Major Projects for VSBA, and our architects Martin Palmer and Paul Thatcher from GHDWoodhead, and Alexandra Griffith from Grimshaw.
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Fitzroy Gasworks
(Senior Campus)
(interim name)
Project design team insights
Chris Millard: The Design Team's really captured the aspirations our program and I think you'll all agree it looks absolutely fantastic. It's captured one of the key drivers of our Senior Secondary Partnership that's existed. It's not a new thing, it's existed for 10 years, and it's really been designed to help our students find their best post-school pathways and increase the breadth of subjects on offer for students. So, they certainly captured that, and we are going to begin our panel discussion. Hopefully I’ll be able to get everybody on screen fairly soon, and I’m going to introduce you to all of those people who were part of that video presentation and we're going to answer as many questions as possible with the time available, and to do that we've grouped into a number of themes. We'll cover more in-depth responses to some of the operational questions that we've received about pedagogy and programs and subjects and transport at our upcoming subject information session, and in our senior program guide as well. But to get us started I’m going to go to Sam, and what year levels will attend the campus, and what about year 10 students?
Sam Luck: Yeah, thank you Chris. Absolutely this is a senior school or part of our senior program, so it's 11 and 12s that will be on site at the Gasworks. Maybe there will be provision in the future where we have our year 10s that might be undertaking a year 11 or 12 subject, they could be on site then, but predominantly it's 11 and 12s at this stage.
Chris Millard: Excellent. Linda what programs will the new campus offer? I might just get you to unmute yourself there Linda so you can tell everyone about those new programs that this new campus will offer.
Linda Mitchell: Okay, sorry is that okay now
Chris Millard: Yeah perfect
Linda Mitchell: Thank you. We'll be offering the usual senior certificates: Victorian Certificate of Education; the VCAL Certificate - which is actually going to be changing after next year; and the Vocational Education Training Certificates. For example, at the moment we offer kitchen operations, creative industries, and things like that. We're also looking at some of the more innovative certification and graduation opportunities as they arise. We're actually part of a project called New Metrics, which is looking at different ways of graduating and different things that are in demand in the world other than just the usual VCE and VCAL and that.
The building's designed to cater for all subject areas so students can stay there for the majority of their week. There will be a couple of subjects staying at one of the main campuses. For example, kitchen operations will stay at Collingwood because it has a dedicated industrial kitchen, and some aspects of VCE Theatre Studies would be done at the Collingwood Theatre.
As well as those subject programs and those certificates, we'll be continuing with expanding our advisory and tutorial programs which you'll probably hear more about later, and we really think that co-curricular programs are important as well. Especially as we'll have the ability to include partners in learning such as artists in residence and social enterprises in those programs, but exactly what we offer in this regard will depend to a large extent on student interest and demand, Chris.
Chris Millard: Absolutely, I mention that as one of the key things. I’ll make a quick comment in terms of enrolment so students who can enrol at whichever school is closest to their home address - either Collingwood College or Fitzroy High School - and you would inquire through the normal enrolment procedures listed on each school's website, and contact details will certainly come through at the end of this presentation.
I might go to the next question now so Linda and Sam, and I might start with you Linda. What opportunities does the new campus present for the teaching and learning approach or pedagogy in the senior programme?
Linda Mitchell: Thanks Chris. So, having a dedicated senior environment offers a lot of opportunities for pedagogy. Obviously to start with it's an extension of what we currently do, where the two schools share subject delivery and curriculum, and teaching and learning, but we want to continue to ask what's important in terms of 21st Century learning.
We know that recent research shows how adaptable and innovative students need to be in the future. That they will have multiple pathways some of which we don't even know yet. That their skills and their experience during school needs to go far beyond what the subjects within a VCE or VCAL certificate teach them, and we want to incorporate a more university style of learning where that's applicable and also a more workplace style of learning.
So, an example of the former is that there are seminar and lecture rooms as well as small project and breakout spaces, and this allows for different styles of curriculum delivery and much more independent learning more similar to a university. An example of the latter in terms of perhaps more workplace style of learning is the ability to work with partners as I mentioned before with regard to co-curricular. For example, the cafe dining and food precinct, which I’ll talk about later on, offers an opportunity for students to learn and to get a certificate-type outcomes within a much more authentic workplace environment. So, that's some of the ways that I think the new campus will be challenging our teaching and learning or our pedagogy, and over to you Sam.
Sam Luck: Yes, look I guess what we've had in mind and with the architects as well when we've built the Gasworks campus is that we need a place that's going to, I guess be flexible in a dynamic as educational trends in the future change. So, we have incorporated that in terms of the design, if we want more open classroom seminar-style university-style programs offered we can do that. Yet at the same time if we need smaller spaces and more traditional spaces, or we need breakout spaces that's there as well. So, a lot of flexibility there that I’m sure that will gain I guess lots of great outcomes for the next 10, 20, 30 years.
Chris Millard: Thanks, Sam and Linda. There's been a lot of interest in our facilities for specialist subjects and Linda what opportunities will the performing arts and music facilities enable?
Linda Mitchell: So, Chris, on the ground floor we've got a fantastic performing arts and music facility which has been designed with really practical things in mind like being able to bring in large pieces of set construction, being able to open up to the amphitheatre area in the middle or close down for different sorts of classes. The area has got a fantastic flow of our performance space, through to classrooms, through to a back of house area. A really great facility to support production including an adaptable project space for constructing things. Also, individual music practice rooms, a recording studio and a green room, and then on another floor there's actually a green screen space as well where media can be filmed and contribute to this entire area. It's also allowed us to create things like a kiosk, change rooms and those sorts of areas that will be available to the community as well. So, it's a very exciting area.
As I said before it's been designed to complement the theatre that's already at Collingwood College, but it's going to be a fabulous area and we're hoping that we can have our individual music lessons there as well and both schools have got a really strong music program so that's very exciting.
Chris Millard: Yeah, so, I might go to Alex actually just to talk about that link between the amphitheatre, the performing arts and the project space.
Alex: Yeah, so as Linda touched on already the amphitheatre space and the music drama and performing rooms really can be opened up in into one big open space. There's, three consecutive spaces that are all divided with movable operable walls, so they can be used in a number of different configurations and the really great thing about it is that as you come into the school for the first time come down the concourse, you step out into the amphitheatre and that big, tiered bleacher seating is at one time performance space and at another sort of recreation and just chill-out space. You can sit on the bleachers and catch up, and you can also fit yeah up to I think 70 to 100 people sitting and watching a performance.
And then as Linda mentioned, as well, there's also the adaptable project space immediately behind the performing arts precinct. So, you know that can be a space that could be used as say like back of house. You've got workshops available, lots making space, a big built-in bench with sinks and full-length mirror there so that can be used as like costume and makeup spaces and you could zip up in the lifts immediately opposite to the technology space where you've got all of your fabrication and tech lab equipment. So, you can imagine that those series of spaces being used in really exciting, dynamic way for both production, planning of performances and then the execution and you know the sitting back and enjoying the audience space.
Chris Millard: Absolutely. Sounds adaptable and flexible, and we're gonna have lots of ways of connecting all of those spaces together which is fabulous. Linda the kids are keen to know more about the food cafe precinct and the kitchens for student use.
Linda Mitchell: Yep, thank you. This is another really exciting area. So, the kitchen is not the full-on industrial kitchen that again I mentioned is at Collingwood College, but it is a really good kitchen still for classes such as food studies. It's adjacent to the cafe with shared facilities, so there's a real opportunity here for a link between class learning and out of class learning with perhaps students being able to contribute to the running of the cafe as part of their studies and connecting them to industry in the workplace.
The cafe and dining area provides for a really senior school/tertiary environment where students can be social, heat up their food, purchase food, work together, study and of course the outdoor terrace is a great addition to the classroom area, encouraging students to grow their own ingredients and importantly to see how this can occur within a very urban environment. So, the whole precinct has been designed to be accessible to community groups as well for example those using the performing arts spaces downstairs could then be coming up and using the dining area as well.
Chris Millard: That sounds tremendous. Martin, how does the food precinct or other learning environments prepare students for further study, or build those 21st century learning skills or independent learning?
Martin Palmer: Yeah, thanks Chris. I think Linda really summed it up, but I think there's really great opportunity here to build links between the school and, being a senior campus particularly, the school and external industry and workplace and universities and TAFEs, all of which are you know visible when you stand on that top basketball court. You can sort of see the world before you, and where those students are gonna go in the future.
So the sort of food precinct is, you know it's a little bit of a university style food precinct. The cafes like Linda said it's not just for eating. It's for studying, meeting, socializing all those sorts of things that sort of higher education food precincts might be. Connected by that commercial kitchen which gives the students the opportunity to get skills to go out into those sort of fantastic cafes and restaurants which are all around the school.
Chris Millard: Absolutely, yeah. It's, you know, in a great spot. So, look, I’ll make a quick comment about the recreation facilities on offer and the terraces located on each level are connected that provide the passive space for interaction, and study and learning. The location of the campus as Martin just pointed out, so we're very well connected to parks nearby such as Edinburgh Gardens and Darling Gardens and of course the Fitzroy Swimming Pool too. So, there's certainly plenty of scope for sports and recreation.
Wayne and Anne will the community be able to use the campus outside of school hours, and maybe if you can make a comment about the security design considerations to enable community use.
Anne Vella: Yeah, thanks Chris. Further to what you're actually saying, there will be an opportunity - most definitely - for the community to access the competition grade court on the ground level. Outside of school hours that will need to be determined by the school and based on availability. A decision was made early in the design process for the main court to be on the ground floor so that we could organize separate entrances or a distinct difference between the school and if the community wanted to access that that particular court, and we believe that we've achieved that. So, yeah, we're very happy with that.
Chris Millard: Anything further to add there Wayne?
Wayne Alford: I guess when the Development Victoria project is completed as well with the additional four courts, they will have an operator as well and they will obviously work with the community around access to those additional four courts that Development Victoria are constructing over the coming years.
Chris Millard: Yes, so certainly plenty of courts and that’s a good thing for our community. Paul, can you give us an example of maybe either bio or chemical physics or the enviro science students how they might use the science terrace?
Paul Thatcher: Sure, Chris. This is one of the great features of the building, is that there's on every level access to a terrace and from the science precinct, particularly the physics area opens directly onto the outdoor terrace and there's access for the rest of the floor through to that level to that outdoor area. So, there's an outdoor undercover zone with seating, and also an uncovered zone with gardens. So, we imagine there might be a variety of science investigations being able to flow out to the outdoor space, including access to the solar equipment for the building. We imagine there might be some permanent weather observations, wind and rain gauges, and some other science outdoor science experiments which could be set up as on a semi-permanent basis and then of course access to the garden area for nature-related plants studies and biological related activities out there. So, there's just sort of off the top of my head a number of options for the use of those outdoor spaces that relate to that indoor precinct.
Chris Millard: Yeah actually, we've been talking a lot about precincts and maybe Linda could you maybe talk through that concept of a precinct and, for example, maybe how the arts precinct is designed as a whole learning area?
Linda Mitchell: Sure. So, I guess the building's conceptualised as precincts, and some of those are based on specialised learning areas such as the arts - which I’ll give as an example in a moment - as well as more generalized precincts such as the information hub which is you know the library and so on. There was a lot of consultation between the architects and the school community to decide on how the space would be used, and one of those things that was really important was the adjacencies between areas, and the ability to move between different learning areas, as well within a precinct.
So, each precinct has a very holistic approach, allowing opportunities to work across subjects and to integrate technology and to move between those classrooms that might be open or closed depending on what's required at the time as well as move into smaller learning areas where more independent learning can take place. So, taking the arts precinct as an example, it's designed so that the subjects we offer at the moment such as studio arts, visual communication, design and technology and so on can be catered for within a large area and different sorts of classrooms that they can be opened up or closed as I mentioned before and allowing for large groups or small groups or individuals to work.
The whole area will have a very much a studio feel, so there'll be specialist equipment which I know Sam's going to talk about in a minute, maker spaces, the opportunity for students to really feel like they belong, that they are emerging artists and that and that they can leave their work half-finished or finished work will be on display because exhibition and celebration of learning is a very important concept throughout the campus as well and within each precinct we are hoping that we can manage the timetable so that teachers and technology assistants are located in that precinct as a resource for students not just during class time but during independent learning time as well.
Chris Millard: Yeah, that's certainly needed and, maybe Sam, we haven't talked about the technology precinct yet. What new specialized equipment will be available in that place?
Sam Luck: I guess the beauty of building a new school is that everything you put in there is brand new, which is really exciting. So, it doesn't matter if it's if we're talking about ICT equipment, it'll be state of the art and it'll be brand new.
I guess some of the thinking in the design of the building, and I guess some of our I guess educational thinking was around that if students are I guess designing - for example in VCE Product and Design - designing things on paper that they can actually then translate that to be something physical and tangible, and that might show up in some of our display areas as well. So, in order to do that we visited a number of universities in particular Melbourne University and looked at some of their areas to get some inspiration, and I guess in terms of equipment specific equipment that we'll see is things like laser cutters and 3D printers will feature quite predominantly through that area, but again there's many, many more items that will feature within and we can put a list together should we need to. But it's all brand new and it's all state of the art which is exciting.
Chris Millard: Yeah, I hope our students who want to choose Product Design will be, will be very excited by that that particular precinct. Alex, can you talk through we had a lot of questions about the other the different types of spaces throughout the building can you talk through those that different variety of space?
Alex: Yeah sure so you know we obviously have, as we've touched on, a number of specialist precincts that have quite specific uses like performing arts and technologies, and then we also have you know a whole suite of more flexible I guess you could say traditional teaching spaces which look a bit more like your classroom space, but then you know to complement that and particularly through a lot of the movement areas and informal space we have tried to include a whole range of different areas that would accommodate different kind of personality types and different learning styles. So, we've designed little study booths where you could get sort of four to six people sitting opposite each other in a little you know area lined with pin board at a desk. We've got little study nooks that recess into the walls where you could have a couple of people sitting you know face-to-face, or just someone relaxing you know in corridor before popping into class.
We've got a lot of, sort of, informal breakout spaces for larger groups as well. So, the ground floor amphitheatre, there's also an amphitheatre on level four which can accommodate groups of like a whole class but in a more sort of informal audience setting. The seminar space which I think Linda spoke about which is a learning in the round kind of idea where we have tiered seating that wraps around the perimeter of the space so you can get people up on two different levels and have teachers sort of and instructors roaming around and have a bit more sort of collaborative learning. The resource center which is again you know a place where you would go either seek out one-on-one instruction or to catch up with your teacher or your mentor or you might go there to have independent study or access some of the other school resources.
And then there's all of the connected indoor/outdoor spaces that we have, where a lot of the classrooms will open up directly onto the covered rooftop terraces. So, you could have either whole classes again, or, smaller groups going and working outdoors, having instruction outdoors or just you know independent study or recreation both in and out and having that flow between. So, there's a huge range.
Chris Millard: Yeah, such a big range, and we get lots of questions about the acoustics. Can you talk through a bit of the treatment around that?
Alex: Yeah, so I suppose related to that there's always a balance between having a really great connection between spaces, having lots of open connections and sight lines, and, you know, the flip side which is minimizing noise transfer between spaces because the last thing you want is you know for a noisy group over there to be disrupting you know someone trying to do quiet study over here. So, you know, all of the main teaching and learning spaces can be closed off. We've got lots of big sliding doors, operable walls so you can create big open connected spaces you can also bring them down to a single class size space that's really well acoustically sealed, and then you know in the larger breakout areas we've tried to create like I said before those sort of small and where you can kind of get away from the noise.
We've worked as a team, all of us, really closely with acoustic engineers and modelled up in 3d specific spaces to be tested with actual sound reverberation to make sure that you know that the acoustics are going to work, and I now know more about acoustics than I ever wanted to in my life. So, you know I think we're going to be fine there. I did a quick calc before we've got something like three and a half thousand square meters of acoustic wall lining which is also pin board, so pin-up space, and you know all of our ceilings are something like 70 or 80 acoustic absorption in the ceiling. So, there's a lot of material methods that we've put in as well as functional sort of spatial arrangements to make sure that acoustics are really well addressed.
Chris Millard: Thank you so much. Very comprehensive and really very much appreciated. Paul, how does the design ensure accessibility and inclusion for the different learning styles and - Alex did touch a little bit on that - personalities and abilities?
Paul Thatcher: Yeah, that was, I think Alex covered a lot of that, which is great. Of course, the building, although it's across you know really six levels which is a bit unusual for a high school, for senior college, but there's full lift access to every level and to the rooftop. So, accessibility wise I think we're well covered the building's fully compatible with all of the accessibility requirements and, as Alex said, there's a whole bunch of different learning settings and places that you can go do private study, individual group, small groups, or larger groups. I think the yeah we've tried to sort of break down a lot of the barriers between precincts so that there's lots of breakouts lots of opportunities to find a place that's comfortable to sit and work for longer periods or shorter periods in different size configurations, and Alex referred to the nooks and booths and little niches and other places where people where you can find a sort of a comfortable place not just sort of everyone sitting in the same kind of environment all day long.
Also, just to note that there's opportunities for sort of standing height desks and sitting so that, then soft and hard furniture so there's a variety of, you know, you can mix it up a bit during the day which is super important for you know moving through a space and learning
Chris Millard: Yeah, that's a really good point about furniture. Sam, how will the current support translate to the campus?
Sam Luck: Well, I guess Paul picked up on a lot of that in terms of the building and I have absolute trust that the building is designed with the needs of students that have additional needs in mind. I guess what's reassuring for our community is this is not a brand new school at a brand new start our kids that will be coming to the Gasworks Campus are well supported now behind the scenes by their teachers, their home group teachers et cetera, and I said guess up to us as the leadership of both schools to make sure that transition from going from A to the new campus, that those kids are supported along the way and that is a feature within our steering committee and also both schools in terms of how we're going to do that.
Chris Millard: Thanks Sam. Yes, we're almost, we've got probably about eight questions left so we'll keep moving fairly quickly. Our next theme is sustainability. Martin, will the campus have water harvesting? Can you give us 30 seconds on that one?
Martin Palmer: Sure, I’ll go quickly. It does. It collects all the rainwater from the hard surfaces around the school to then irrigate all those great green terraces we've got, and also choose to flush the toilet and the school's got some really nice other sustainable features. All that louver system on the school is designed to stop the heat load getting into the school and give - stop the glare really importantly glare getting to the school from those environments, and you can see on the roof it's normally covered in mechanical equipment, roofs, but this roof isn't obviously. It's got an array of solar panels on the top, and all that green roof help helps keep the building cool and actually helps keep the whole city and the whole environment cool.
Chris Millard: Anne and Wayne what local product has been used?
Anne Vella: So, Chris, in accordance with the procurement of any builder through state government there's an expectation that they provide a certain percentage of local trades and local materials and in the situation with Gasworks, in this instance the builder is required to provide at least 91 of local trades which they are doing successfully and 90 percent, accessing 92 percent of local product. So, it's something that that we keep a close eye on and is a really important expectation of any departmental project.
Chris Millard: Thanks, Anne. Now we'll go to the next theme, so we'll keep moving. Martin, how does the design encourage student community or global engagement beyond the curriculum?
Martin Palmer: Yeah, sure. I think Linda's touched on this a little bit, but you know when you go to that rooftop court, and you look out and you can see Melbourne Uni and Collingwood TAFE and the city and that creative precinct around the school. So, the idea is that you know there's engagement with all of that, and people from outside come into the school and use those school facilities and share their learnings with the students, and hopefully you know relationships where students can go out and engage with all those institutions and all those great things around the school and go and engage with what's around them.
Chris Millard: And Sam, has student safety been considered or Anne?
Sam Luck: Absolutely. I guess there's been a lot of work behind the scenes with the local council, whether it be Development Victoria as well making sure that we've got appropriate traffic management, that our bike lanes are in place those sorts of things for students that are coming to and from school, but probably the big one is that it's a single point access one entry access for the students to come into the school anyone else that might be trying to get in and I guess part of the design across the vertical building is that there's a lot of room and I guess opportunity for passive supervision by staff whether they're on yard duty or not which is also quite comforting. Anne might have some further detail about some safety aspects that we've incorporated along the way.
Anne Vella: Yeah, looking further to what Sam's saying Chris, we certainly as part of our design process we go through what's known as safety and design workshops to make sure that the design and the materials and any of the joinery that's being put in is safe and compliant in accordance to what is expected through our building handbook, building quality services handbook. So, we're pretty confident it's pretty safe school.
Chris Millard: Thank you. Paul, will the campus design enable more subjects to be offered?
Paul Thatcher: Thanks, Chris. A very, very quick one. I think we've touched on that quite a bit, but the great thing about the design I think is that besides the sort of required number of formal teaching spaces to roll out the curriculum and the timetable, there's all those additional spaces which we can the students can flex to and so that gives the possibility for a whole lot of other subject and other project directed learning to occur inside and outside of those more formal settings.
Chris Millard: Yeah, and I’d just add that when we get to the capacity of 650 students, we'll certainly keep expanding on the 35 different subjects that we already offer, and we've added things like sociology and applied computing and enviro science and food studies in recent years. So, as the enrolment grows, we'll certainly have more breadth as well.
Paul and Anne, I understand the indigenous consultation started very early in the project?
Paul Thatcher: I was just going to say Anne, yes very early on in the process we had the opportunity to engage with the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, and it was great because just from the start we sort of figured out how to work together and what aspects of cultural significance could be you know woven into the theming of the building and to the key design ideas. And so that gave us a whole lot of a whole range of options and opportunities to embed our ideas, artworks colours, interpretive elements, history and other aspects. I think that's quite an exciting aspect of that design.
Chris Millard: Absolutely.
Anne Vella: And just to add to that, Chris, there's now an expectation with all our new schools whether they be refurbished or extended that there is indigenous interpretation incorporated into the school, and that's something that has just come through so that's also been a great achievement.
Chris Millard: Sam, any quick comments of how might this flow on to curriculum and pedagogy?
Sam Luck: Oh, look I think both schools have indigenous perspectives thoroughly embedded within the curriculum. But look this this I guess when you look at the fly through is when you walk into the school this indigenous perspective is front and center and will remain on our agenda in the long term.
Chris Millard: Absolutely. Linda, has consideration been given to amplifying student voice, leadership and agency?
Linda Mitchell: Sure. So, I think I mentioned before that in the lead up to the design of the campus students from both schools were consulted about what mattered to them, and of course the indigenous place and history came through from the community as well as sustainability. So, they're two really important narratives that are there in the campus and we really hope that students will contribute to the environment and the design by continuing those narratives and other things they think are important.
I mentioned before about co-curricular offerings, having a strong focus on what students’ interest and demand is. We'll be building on the current student voice and leadership opportunities through a specific senior program student committee, which is an extension of the student representative councils and most importantly is that building a student agency over their own learning, being able to work with others collaboratively as well as independently, and a lot of that is through the development of a learner profile which there's not enough time to talk about tonight but we'll be able to talk about when we come to our senior programs evening.
Chris Millard: Yes, I’ll talk about that soon. Sam, did you want to talk about any student leadership opportunities?
Sam Luck: Look without the students traveling from one campus to another, whether it be by rail, foot or by a shuttle bus which they currently do, we're going to have a lot more time at lunch time and recess to build it on student leadership. Given that kids are going to be in the one place and the place we probably start most definitely will be a student representative council for our senior school.
Chris Millard: Look, I’m going to I’m going to go to our last question which was a really great question I’m going to ask each of our panel this one, for one sentence about what they think the key benefit, or the new experience that the campus will provide students so I might start with Paul, what do you think?
I know he's on he's giving us his key benefit too.
Paul Thatcher: You surprised me there. I think just to boil down a little key benefit from the building, I think it's a great place to learn through doing, making, collaborating, investigation, and also then displaying work. So, there's opportunities and resources and places for those kinds of things, and to build autonomy as a student.
Chris Millard: Wayne I might go to you.
Wayne Alford: Yeah, I’d probably say that it's a 21st century learning environment, and that it will really help set up senior students in that transition into between secondary learning and a tertiary learning space.
Chris Millard: Alex?
Alex: I almost didn't unmute myself. I think you know just the excitement of the whole project. It's everyone in the background has put a lot of energy and excitement into the design and the facilities that you're going to have, and I think students coming in, you know, you're gonna be really pumped and the place itself is just really special. So, yeah, I think it's just gonna have a good vibe.
Chris Millard: Fantastic. Linda, would you like to add yours?
Linda Mitchell: Yeah, sure. I’m really keen on the idea that the space and the learning approach will provide further co-location of partners in learning, which I think is really different to what we currently do. So, opportunities for both students and teachers to work with community groups, social enterprises, university researchers, businesses, artists in residence and for them to be co-located because there'll be space for that to happen, and real great opportunities in terms of the design.
Chris Millard: Anne, any word from you?
Anne Vella: Probably, Chris, the main thing is that it'll pave the way for future thinking around the design of vertical schools, and how we ensure that the functionality does influence the form which is something that we continue to work on. So, that's probably the main thing for me at this point.
Chris Millard: I've got two more left, so I've got Martin?
Martin Palmer: Well. hopefully give the students a bit of a taste to their future whether that be you know industry, TAFE university.
Chris Millard: And Sam? Would you like to have the final word?
Sam Luck: Artist's job. But look, I think this building provides for the many different learning styles of our students, and there's flexibility there for our wonderful educators to also teach a little bit differently as well. Finally, no one's mentioned this but it's a big building, it's quite high, it's got a magnificent view, so if there's anything they're absolutely impressed by the view from any level.
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For Further information about:
Senior program guide
Subject information session
Virtual campus tour
Campus tours
Enrolment
Collingwood College
collingwood.vic.edu.au
0394 176 681
Fitzroy High School
fitzroyhs.vic.edu.au
03 9488 1900
Victorian School Building Authority
schoolbuildings.vic.gov.au/schools/Pages/FitzroyGasworksSeniorCampus [https://www.schoolbuildings.vic.gov.au/wurun-senior-campus]
1800 896 950
[On-screen graphics]
A segment of the PowerPoint shows part of a render, detailing the proposed interior of the Fitzroy Gasworks (Senior Campus).
Chris Millard: Look, I’d like to thank our panel or answering all the questions. Hopefully we've managed to cover all of those key themes that have been sent through, and as we said earlier you've obviously, hopefully found out more about this new campus design. We're well positioned to be balancing those educational needs of students right now and with the future in senior secondary education. You can see on the screen some further information. So, our senior program guide and senior information session will be posted on our school websites there is a virtual campus tour that you can take at both of those locations as well.
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