15 March 2021
On 2 March, St Brendan’s Catholic School, Lake Munmorah welcomed Bishop Anthony Randazzo alongside Principal Craig McNee and parish priests, Fr Tomy Kuruvelil and Fr Baby Thomas for the blessing of their new building.
Special guests in attendance included Cathy Scott and Leanne Caldwell from Catholic Schools Broken Bay, Fr Vincent Trung Nguyen and representatives from Glendenning Szoboslay Architects and Reitsma Constructions.
In 2017, planning for the new learning spaces commenced. The design and vision were clear from the beginning. School Principal, Craig McNee, said it was “to create learning spaces where education would be collaborative, allowing students to work in a range of groups to think, learn from each other and be supported with digital technologies”.
With contributions of the Building Grant Assistance Scheme from the NSW State Government of $1.4 million and support from Catholic Schools Broken Bay, building commenced at the end of 2019. Students were amazed to watch and learn alongside the project as it evolved over the year.
"It was great to see the workers everyday, it made me think that I might want to be a builder when I’m older,” said Brax, a student at St Brendan's. The project was completed mid 2020, with very excited Stage 3 students commencing their learning in the building in Term 4, 2020.
Set out across two levels, the state of the art building contains many areas including seven classrooms and a library. Each classroom is attached to a small break-out space where small groups can learn together. On each level there is a large collaboration space where across grade teaching can take place with enough room for every student. The classrooms also have a range of seating arrangements and desk designs, that can be easily manipulated for different learning styles.
Year 6 Student and Environment leader Imogen said, “The open space is good for collaborative learning and for seeing your friends who may be in a different class. It has an open feeling because the ceiling is really high, it doesn’t feel stuffy. Another good thing is that there are two screens in our classroom, the one at the back of the classroom mirrors what is on the front screen, so if you are facing the other way you can see what we are learning”.