Jennifer Pittorino
After years of preparation and planning, Williamstown High School has opened two new major buildings at its Pasco campus, ready to be used by its 1500 students.
College principal Gino Catalano said after five years of delays, he was thrilled to open the VCE study centre and performing arts centre of excellence on Monday, April 15.
“In 2011 we started planning our legacy project, which was to provide first class, performing arts facilities for our students,” he said.
“We decided to create a theatre and music rooms in 2017 which have been widely used by the students and community.”
Mr Catalano said the second part of that project was to build a performing arts space complete with performing arts rooms, instrumental music rooms , band rooms , a recording studio a music classroom, and a green room.
“We knew this would be a great space for students to display their visual artwork because we know that young people are inspired in their creativity by viewing the artwork of others as well as critically reflecting on their own works,” he said.
“This new building is equipped with a large band room with plenty of space for our recording equipment, a recording studio and a purpose built classroom.”
Although most of the funds were locally raised, Mr Catalano said the state government pitched in $1 million for stage one, and for stage two it was $1.73 million.
Altogether the school contributed $4.8 million to go towards the project.
“We decided we wanted a study centre to be specifically for the VCE students which has become their second home,” he said.
“It is a mature adult study environment where they go when they haven’t got scheduled classes.”
The space is also complete with screens for assemblies, kitchen facilities, co-ordinators’ offices and more.
“We consulted with the students along the way in terms of design and what they wanted,” Mr Catalano said.
“All 250 students will benefit from the centre, at most there are usually 30 kids in there at a time.”
Mr Catalano is sure these spaces will benefit the next generation of students to walk through the WIlliamstown High School doors.
