[Upbeat music begins and plays throughout the video]
[Panning shot of the old school building is shown on screen]
[On-screen text: Sydney Road Community School]
[On-screen text: Irene Savakis, Co-Principal]
Irene Savakis: Hi, my name is Irene and I'm one of the co-principals here at Sydney Road Community School. Sydney Road's been around for over 50 years and as you can imagine, Brunswick has changed a lot in those 50 years.
[Panning shots of the school]
Irene: Sydney Road Community School is a small government secondary school. We're quite unique in that we have 100 students, and we offer the Victorian curriculum and in our senior school we also run VCE and will be running the vocational major.
[On-screen text: Tess Abbottsmith Youl, Co-Principal]
Tess Abbottsmith Youl: My name's Tess, I'm a co-principal at Sydney Road Community School and my pronouns are she/they. Learning at Sydney Road is really individualised. There's a real focus and importance placed on enabling young people to develop their self-identity as learners and as community members and ensuring that they have all of the variety of supports that they need not only to be ready to learn, but to be able to engage really fully in learning to have successful senior secondary outcomes and to go out into the world as I guess what we really hope for and what we're really working on is really well-rounded citizens who are ready to contribute in really positive ways.
[Tilt shot of the school mezzanine]
[Panning shot of student's movements in a classroom]
[Follow-up shot of a student walking the dog]
Irene: Most of our students try bigger schools and for various reasons, big schools are not for them.
[Panning shots of the class in session]
Irene: They didn't experience success where they used to be, so coming here we want to put whatever is necessary in place, so they can be successful.
Tess: There's a lot going on and there's a lot of variation at any given time.
[Students playing with different instruments]
[Panning shot of the arts room]
Tess: But there's a lot of care and a lot of thought put into many of the working parts of the school and it allows for people to really find their own groove and to have their individual needs met, which I think is something that's hard to achieve in a big secondary school. Sydney Road is quite unique as being a community school and having been able to remain really true to the spirit of community schools since their inception in the seventies.
[On-screen text: Tracey Masur, School Council President]
Tracey: What I love most about the school community as a parent is the mutual respect that the students and the teachers have for each other. It means that the teachers then are able to understand the students strengths and get the best out of them.
[On-screen text: Jude Roberts, Student School Council Representative]
Jude Roberts: I've learnt that school doesn't need to be an incredibly stressful time and that you can enjoy being at school and that it's worth going to school. I think that everyone's supporting one another and being there for one another. Everyone at the school does care for you and wants to see you succeed. Kind of very much changed the way I view school and even outside of school.
[On-screen text: Esraa Dawas, Student School Council Representative]
Esraa Dawas: Everyone knows each other, so that's a good thing. Like you could always ask for help when needed. We have lots of wellbeing staff here that would always be here.
Tess: So our school has a really unique design and it's been really key to the development of the community aspect of the school over time, not having sort of tucked away secret spaces for staff or for different student groups, but that idea of everyone learning together all the time.
[Photo of the main hall]
[Panning shot of the school’s mezzanine]
Tess: We're really lucky the architects that we've worked with have been really fantastic at trying to replicate as much of the structure of the space as possible.
Irene: The way we operate here at Sydney Road, having a main hall that is a shared space is really important.
[Tilt shot of the main hall]
Irene: All the classrooms operate off that shared space.
[Panning shot of the school’s mezzanine then panning shot of a classroom]
Irene: Here we have a mezzanine, so that way we can have more classrooms, and again, we wanted to recreate that, that atmosphere, that goes towards our culture at the new location.
[Tilt shot of construction work at the new location]
Irene: So, creating a mezzanine again, that can look out onto the main hall. So even though groups can be in their individual classes, they're still part of a shared space.
Esraa: I'm excited about the new school because it would be nice to be in a modern space.
[Tilt shot of construction work]
Jude: The way the VCE classroom is it's kind of situated between the kitchen and outside. So every now and then, people in different classes will come banging on pots and pans while we're practicing for an exam. And I think the thing that makes me most excited for the new school is probably not having to hear pots and pans banging as much would be a good time.
[Follow shot of a student walking the dog]
Irene: It was important to stay in this location,: because the other links we have with the community, whether it's the medical centre, whether it's the optometrist, the urban farm. I mean, these are services that some a lot of our students don't have an easy access to. So staying in the area has meant that we've kept those connections and increased the opportunities for our students to participate or get extra support if they need.
Tracey: I was lucky enough to be involved in the whole consultation,
[Clips of Irene teaching a class]
Tracey: and I think that it was really important to take what we've got here, what works here to the next space.
[Tilt shot of the school]
Tracey: And so, we asked the students what works for them here, and that's what we took to the new space or what we will be taking to the new space.
[Panning and tilt shots of construction works play while Tess is speaking]
Tess: You know, there are sort of, I guess, things that work really well for us, but limitations in the space. And I know one of the things a lot of teachers are really excited about is having classrooms that are more or less rectangular versus these really odd shape rooms that we have at the moment, which can be tricky to set up. So, I think some of those sort of practical in-class things, having a science lab that's newly decked out is really exciting.
[Clips of the school garden]
Tess: And then I guess all the work of getting into the garden and getting that set up really beautifully and having students involved in how the spaces work and run.
Irene: Where we are now, we've adapted an old Sunday school building into a 21st-century school.
[Tilt shot of the Sunday school building]
Irene: Now we're going to be moving into a site that's been designed in the 21st century, with 21st century education in mind. And I'm really excited to see how that all works out.
[Tilt shots of the new school renders]
[On-screen text: Artist impression only, subject to change]
The video shows the Victorian School Building Authority logo and website URL [www.schoolbuildings.vic.gov.au]. The elements of the logo are animated on a white background.
The video ends as the shot fades to a black background.
[On-screen text: Authorised by The Victorian School Building Authority 33 St Andrews Place, East Melbourne.]
[End of transcript]
Updated