New primary school for Waikiki

7/8/01
The community of Waikiki Gardens near Rockingham will have a new primary school next year.
Education Minister Alan Carpenter said the temporary school would be in new homes leased from the Waikiki Gardens Estate in the burgeoning area.
"Setting up a School in Houses in the estate will provide a local school for children much sooner than would otherwise be possible and give welcome relief to the large number of students at Charthouse and East Waikiki Primary Schools," Mr Carpenter said.
"The very popular and successful Schools in Houses initiative was an innovative way for the Department of Education to provide educational facilities for families, well before a community's population justified building a permanent school in the area.
"The school will be able to accommodate about 250 students and it is estimated that it will open with up to 120 students.
"The houses will be built adjacent to the future site of the permanent school, which will bring advantages such as allowing the temporary school's oval to be constructed on the permanent school site."
Construction of buildings will start as soon as possible and the school is scheduled to open during the beginning of the 2002 school year.
"Initially the school will be made up of three houses, providing four primary and two pre-primary classrooms," Mr Carpenter said.
"It will also have two houses providing library-resource, art-craft, music and administration facilities together with a covered assembly area.
"Fibre-optic cabling will ensure students are up-to-date with the latest technology, allowing links to the Internet, other schools and the department's central office."
Mr Carpenter said the Waikiki Gardens followed other successful interim school developments by the Department of Education.
"In addition to Schools in Houses, we now have a number of Schools in Shops around the State, including the most recent at Dalyellup near Bunbury," he said.
"Coolamon Primary School is another School in Shops, that began as an annexe of Ellenbrook Primary School in Perth's north-eastern suburbs."
The Minister said parents, staff and students from other Schools in Houses and Schools in Shops had been very strong advocates of the models.
"The local community had significant input into the planning processes for the Waikiki area through the Local Area Education Planning Process," he said.
Media contact: Owen Cole, 9213 6800