As many of the school community are aware we are in the process of organising a new building for Buninyong Primary School’s Buninyong campus to be built as a part of the Building the Education Revolution initiative of the Federal Government.

Normally a project as major as this one would entail a process of engagement of the school community in understanding the needs of the school and the community and what the site requirements would be. Following that the architects would create a specific building to suit the site, our needs and the budget available.

In this case the process is dramatically shortened and it has become a simple question of here is the building where will it best fit? The Design is a template design and except for minor alterations is identical for schools across Victoria and Australia. We cannot alter the design as it has been offered to us–we essentially have the choice of Template A or Template B.

Currently the department, the project managers, the architect and engineers are conducting site examinations to finalise where the building will go. They are in discussions with the relevant bodies to ensure that the building respects the natural environment, the physical requirements and the historic nature of the site. This has meant discussion around a huge range of options regarding where the building will be placed and what the effect will be on the school and the surrounding environments (esp the Botanic gardens). It seems that hardly a week goes by without us hearing of some struggle with one or another of the different locations available. The School Council has met a number of times to agree a “final” site only to discover it is not suitable for one reason or another.

We are expecting geotechnical engineers to make a site evaluation this week and hopefully then we will have a proper location to discuss!

Once the department formally informs us where they will be wanting to place the building and we have a final plan for the building we will circulate this to you. We will also put the large scale plans on display in the school for you to view, this will allow you to see how the whole school campus will look before, during and after construction.

I realise that many of you will have questions and be wondering what it will all look like at the end of the day and I assure you that as soon as we have a Final decision we will circulate this to the whole school (& wider Buninyong) community

If you have any questions feel free to contact the school office and I will be in touch.

From Geoff Sharp, School Council President