ONE of Footscray’s oldest schools has rocketed into the 21st century.
After 160 years of teaching students, St Monica’s Primary School has been reinvented, thanks to more than $2.25million of federal government funding.
Principal Karen Colla says the project has breathed life into “well loved, but long-lived” learning spaces.
“The whole school has been refreshed and [this] has brought 20th century buildings into the 21st century,” she said.
“We now have large, spacious learning areas that are streamlined, beautiful and functional.”
The site was set aside by the Irish Catholic settlers for St Monica’s Church and School in 1852.
A modest building went up in 1908 followed by a second building in
1933.
The school now houses the oldest Catholic church in the western suburbs but has one of the newest learning environments.
Ms Colla said the school would have never been able to raise enough funds to support such an extensive refurbishment.
Gellibrand MP Nicola Roxon officially opened the new-look school last Friday.
“This is a historic investment in the modernisation of our schools and we’ll continue to see the benefits of this program for many years to come,” she said.
Ms Roxon said the school and the community had played an important role in bringing about the redevelopment.
