WHEELS OF CHANGE IN MOTION AT NEERIM SOUTH PRIMARY SCHOOL
Well, we’ve made it through another year and what an exhilarating and challenging one it has been. In 2011 the wheels of change have well and truly been in motion at Neerim South Primary School. Physically our school has changed significantly with the building of a huge new Minx Architect designed flexible learning space that houses four interconnected classrooms, a smorgasbord of new technology, a library, wet learning area, staff offices, e-learning technician’s room and girls and boys toilets, as well as two large beautiful outdoor learning areas. Our older permanent classroom wing has also been refurbished with new carpet, blinds, modern furniture, multi touch interactive whiteboard and walls knocked out between rooms to make large multifunctional learning spaces for a P-2 unit. Early in the year the portable administration building was cut up into five sections, picked up by a crane and relocated over to the other side of our grounds next to the Orana Community Centre so that our BER building could be built where it is. Unfortunately, our basketball court had to go but the building of a new one has begun with work to continue during 2012. We are currently living through a revolutionary change in education, certainly the biggest one that I have seen in the forty years since I joined the Department of Education. You could say we are experiencing a mixture of elation and uncertainty as we enter a new phase of education. One that requires teams of teachers and students to use new and exciting teaching and learning strategies and methods, in open, indoor and outdoor, learning areas using the latest technology and programs available. To date, feedback from our students and teachers about these new practices has been extremely positive.
