Bimbadeen Heights Primary School Building Project 2017-2019

The long awaited and exciting new building project to replace the main building at Bimbadeen is going out to tender in May 2017. The master planning process has been extensive and has been changed along the way to arrive at a plan that is both within budget and meets the needs of our school.

You will see from the master plan above that Bimbadeen Heights will undergo a dramatic change with two new buildings towards the Hayrick Lane side of the school. In the north western corner of the school a new administration and four classroom block will be built first. This will be followed by construction of a new Specialist building to accommodate our Art, Music and Chinese classrooms, along with four regular classrooms. This will be built between the new Admin building and our existing school hall.

Proposed view from Hayrick Lane (Western Elevation)

The very first part of the project scheduled for July 2017 will be the demolition of the eastern end of the main building and the relocation of the OSHClub (Out of School Hours Care building) to the edge of the school oval.

The demolition of this 1970’s building is being very carefully managed and planned due to the hazardous building materials used at that time. This work will only occur during school holidays or weekends and under the strictest regulations and procedures to ensure the safety of our community.

The second phase will involve three new modular buildings (6 classrooms) being placed where the eastern end of the main building once was. These buildings will be permanent and will remain following the construction of the new buildings. Once these buildings are in place we will vacate the western end of the main building, temporarily relocating the office and administration to the BER building. A temporary relocatable toilet block for children will be installed behind the library on the edge of the oval.

The rest of the main building will then be demolished, once again, with hazardous materials being carefully removed on weekends or school holidays. It is anticipated that this phase of the project will happen in August/September 2017.

Administration Building Southern Elevation

Construction of the Administration and classroom block will take until mid 2018. Once we have moved into the new admin and classroom block construction of the Specialty and classroom block will commence.

Specialty Building Northern Elevation

We anticipate project completion sometime in 2019.

Our school will continue to operate throughout this entire project with the focus on high quality teaching and learning whilst maintaining the positive relationships across our school community.

We of course expect some challenges along the way as we move out of some rooms, as some staff and classes work in temporary locations or specialist teachers go from room to room rather than having classes go to specialist classrooms.

One of the most significant challenges for our school will be the loss of the staff car park until the Administration and classroom building is complete in 2018. (The existing staff carpark will be part of the fenced off construction site.) This will put pressure on parking in the streets around our school and add to the congestion at drop-off and pick-up times.

Parents are encouraged to use active travel with children and families walking to school or parking further away from the school and using the safe walking routes identified by the ‘Free Range Kids’ project and the yellow chicken feet on the footpaths.

2018 Foundation Students

Children starting school at Bimbadeen in 2018 will start the school year in the relocatable buildings. They will then be the first children to move into the newly constructed classrooms sometime during their first year of school. Transition events in 2017 will commence in the current Foundation classrooms in the main building and will conclude with orientation days in November/December in the relocatable buildings

where they will start in 2018.