Students at one of Melbourne’s oldest established girls’ schools returned from their summer break to discover a new series of contemporary learning spaces and a visual communications centre, all supported by the latest education technologies.
St Aloysius in Curran Street, North Melbourne, led by principal Mary Farah, embarked on an ambitious redevelopment project during the holidays that included 11 classrooms and the new visual communications centre as well as the construction of a new school entrance on Brougham Street.
The college was founded in 1887 by the Sisters of Mercy to educate young women to go out into the world as confident initiators of change and improvement. Its 500-plus student campus includes a range of 19th and 20th century buildings which, under Farah’s direction, are gradually undergoing their own changes and improvement. The building improvements are part of a comprehensive, staged school transformation driving a broad spectrum of innovation – including the introduction of iPads for all teachers and students, a digital diary system and new school uniform.
Last year the school opened a year seven learning centre within an existing building and this July the school aims to open a new STEM Centre for its integrated science, technology, engineering and mathematics program. Farah says revitalising the college’s buildings is critical to the further development of its culture of learning.
“We understand the new generation of students needs a new way of learning and teaching, and developing contemporary learning spaces is an important part of this. As teachers and school administrators we need to run and catch up with our students in the digital world – they’re well ahead of us.
“We have to make sure we are always at the forefront of learning so that we are never behind. Our approach is about improving all the time and doing everything better. We must and will continue developing our staff skills and updating our facilities,” Farah says.
The newly revitalised classrooms are within a 1960s block which, like many from its era, was more about economic containment than connectivity. The classrooms – which lacked natural light, had poor acoustics and were difficult to heat and cool – lacked other key elements common to modern learning environments including transparency and flexibility.
St Aloysius engaged specialist education architects at Clarke Hopkins Clarke to help the school transform a series of these classrooms into fresh, open and modern learning spaces. Clarke Hopkins Clarke project architect Ezio Costa says learning outcomes are always better when students feel comfortable in their environment.
“It’s not only about improving the physical environment. When students are given high-class facilities they have a greater sense of value in themselves and their work.”
Over the summer, large expanses of acoustic and thermal glass were installed, opening the rooms to corridors and connecting to their external environment.
A new three-metre high, full-width window in the classroom block’s north-facing stairwell wall provides an outlook into a garden courtyard and allows natural light to penetrate deep into the previously dim block.
Mobile walls can open between several of the classrooms to allow team teaching of larger groups when required. Fresh finishes include charcoal carpet tiles, acoustic ceiling panels and swathes of fabric acoustic pin-board wall panels in charcoal, highlighted with bright splashes of colour. The acoustic-backed carpet tiles work with the ceiling and wall panels to reduce both impact and noise. All spaces have new, efficient heating and cooling systems and fibre optic cabling enabling wi-fi throughout the school and connecting large interactive screens and other learning devices. Funky and ergonomic chairs and tables can be reconfigured to suit varying learning and teaching styles.
The visual communications centre features a series of 20 workstations with large screens and new computers with the latest video and photographic editing software and other programs to support students’ media and visual communications studies. There’s also a mobile green screen and large interactive screens.
The school’s resource centre has a new conference room named for school founder Catherine McAuley’s first House of Mercy in Baggot Street, Dublin. Full-height acoustic glass separating the conference room features translucent artwork.
St Aloysius has a strong reputation for its academic results and pastoral program. Farah says every one of the school’s 72 year 12 students in 2014 received a round-one offer for the tertiary course of their choice and she attributes this to being part of a smaller school where staff know students well and can facilitate personalised learning.
The St Aloysius campus includes science laboratories, specialist learning centres for visual communications and media, textiles, food technology, art and graphics; a library, gym with two basketball courts, cafeteria and student services.
The school also uses an outdoor campus at Torquay.
» St Aloysius College, 31 Curran Street, North Melbourne. 9329 0411
