The Building Education Revolution
It is with great pleasure that I inform you of some significant news concerning the Italian Bilingual School. You may be aware of the Building Education Revolution instigated by the Prime Minister, the Honorable Mr Kevin Rudd as part of the Stimulus Package.
As we have established ourselves to remain here at the Casa d'italia in 2010 and having been given access to the entire building from Co.As.It., an application was made for thePrimary Schools for the 21st Century Grant.
The Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) is a $12.4 billion program to build or renew large scale infrastructure in all primary schools, including special schools and K-12s (primary component). The construction of 21st century libraries is the first priority for P21, followed by the construction of multipurpose halls, or in the case of smaller schools, covered outdoor learning areas. These buildings will provide students, teachers and the wider school community with access to a range of high quality resources, information and cutting edge tools to support learning and improve the quality and diversity of learning environments. All eligible schools will receive funding and the great news is that we have been successful in the Round Three of applications.
Our school will receive a total of $586,000 to refurbish existing buildings to form new classrooms with an associated COLA. What does all of this mean for our school?
1)The construction of two new classrooms
2)A total refurbishment of the ground floor with new carpet, painting and new air conditioning
3)Library Resources - Computers, shelving, books, software, A set of laptops in trolleys to use from the library
4)Extra furniture - tables and chairs
5)Interactive Whiteboards for each classroom
6)A partially enclosed COLA (Covered Outdoor Learning Area)
This is a great way for the Italian Bilingual School to commence in 2010 and it is anticipated that the work on these projects will start as soon as possible. I am seriously investigating the possibility of utilising some of this money to initiate a technology project in the school where students would be supplied with a netbook (smaller version of a laptop). There are some amazing possibilities where students would have access to these netbooks at school and then be able to borrow them to take home. Online assignments via a school generated website that would host individual classes, a set of ipods with Italian lessons that could be borrowed for home use. I will be providing further information about these prospects over the coming weeks. Where do you want to go? The world is at our feet.