wess · deputy principal, sheree carr had a sneak peak of the new building currently being...
TRANSCRIPT
Look how far we’ve come: images of the expansion!!
Kim McNamara and WESS Business Manager, Kylie Jones, visiting the expansion site (before social
distancing).
It’s hard to fathom us all freely enjoying the school in this time of social distancing, but we will, and when we do, we’ve got a lot to look forward to!
We’ve come so far!! If you think back to when Dirram Yani was a construction site and the new library was only a dream to now, you can see the difference the master planning has made. These two parts of the school are our most loved!
Now we turn our attention to the expansion site that we can see taking shape. With almost 1,200 WESS students currently, the expanded site will be welcome space for us to continue to grow and learn. Hutchison Builders has made excellent progress so far to expand our school and deliver innovative education infrastructure, and they will continue over the coming months (health regulations permitting).
If they can stay on track in this current environment, they will progress the blockwork walls, structural works, and roof on the learning centre.
We need to celebrate (separately, socially distanced of course) everything we can at the moment to keep us buoyed during these challenging times.
Kim McNamaraWESS Principal
WESS Building our FutureApril 2020
Kim McNamara, WESS Principal
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
Expansion build
Site Manager, Ian Partridge
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
Ambleside Street Changes From now until Stage 1 is completed, the Ambleside Street footpath and parking, on the southern side, will be temporarily closed. The northern side is still open.
Why?
The new pick-up/drop-off zone, including a wider road and footpath with 14 drop-off spaces, is being constructed.
This will give safe access into the new facilities in the expansion site from September 2020 when some of our students will be learning in the new buildings.
Timeline (health restrictions permitting)April-end of stage 1
The southern side of Ambleside Street footpath closed for construction of the new pick-up/drop-off zone.
April 2020 (Easter break)
New nature play area will be constructed at the bottom of the oval near Jane St.
Term 4, 2020
Construction for Stage 1 on the expansion site completed.
Prep and Year 1 classes move to the new 3-storey learning centre.
Ambleside Street pick-up/drop-off zone in operation.
End 2021-mid 2022
Green space and undercroft play space completed.
Term 1, 2022
Construction completed of the 2-storey learning centre including administration buildings and library.
Years 5 and Year 6 classes move to the new 4-storey learning centre.
Mid 2022
Campus heart ready.
Performing Arts Centre including music areas, the auditorium, and canteen completed.
47-space car park opens for staff.
First slab of the expansion poured!
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
Furnishing the future Deputy Principal, Sheree Carr had a sneak peak of the new building currently being constructed on the expansion site. Together with teachers, Mrs Carr is looking at the furniture that will support the evidence-based research about enhancing student learning.
What impressed you about the building?
The space—I now have a clearer idea about the size of the classrooms and collaborative spaces.
What furniture will we see in the expansion site?
Furniture that enables “AGILE classrooms”; enabling us to change classrooms quickly and easily, reflecting the learners and the learning.
Is the furniture choice important?
The traditional classroom spaces that we experienced in our childhood were designed with the teacher at the centre. If learning is to be maximised shouldn’t the classroom be focused on the learner instead? We are currently transitioning our current classrooms with this in mind.
For WESS this looks like furniture that can be easily manipulated to create a variety of different shapes and spaces in our classrooms to support learning.
Each classroom in the expansion site will share a collaborative learning space with three other classrooms—we can build spaces that encourage active learning and active learning is deep learning where knowledge is retained for longer.
Furniture being considered for West End State School
Outdoor seating option
Colour schemes
Deputy Principal, Sheree Carr
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
Celebrating our frog pond successBuild it and they will come!
Recent rainfall has prompted a lot of frog pond activity. We have three species of tadpoles present! (2 are great, 1 not so)
Recent activity has included:
- 9 spawning events of the Striped Marsh Frog (look for the large, black tadpoles).
- Lots of green tree frog tadpoles in the pond (look for brown, mottled, slightly transparent tadpoles).
- Invasive cane toad tadpoles have been noticed. We are working with BCC and UQ to capture these, and we’re looking into ways to improve the cane toad barrier (cane toad tadpoles are small and black, and they don’t rise to the surface frequently).
- Honey Blue Eyes, an endangered fish species are thriving in their new home (look for small, light coloured fish—it takes a keen eye and a dose of patience to see them).
- Four species of butterfly visiting the pond including Blue Tigers, Blue Triangles, Lemon Migrants, and the Common Crow.
- Red and blue dragonflies have been flying around the pond. If you look closely in the sedges, you may see larval nymph shells of their juvenile aquatic form. They crawl out of the water and perch on the aquatic plants before the adult form emerges, flies away and leaves the old exoskeleton behind. Simon Cook, WESS parent.
Frog spawn in our pond Brisbane River Grasswort, an endangered plant found in our pond
Blue Tiger Butter-flies. Photo credit:
Hongming Kan
Graphium sarpedon choredon, Blue Trian-gle Butterfly. Family: Papilionidae. Photo credit: Bob Jessop
Lemon Migrant Butterfly. Photo credit:
Clifford Frith and Dawn Frith.
Common Crow or Oleander Butterfly
(Euploea core). Image: Bruce Hulbert
© Bruce Hulbert
FUN FACT
When butter-flies are in such large numbers as we’re seeing around Brisbane, we refer to it as an explosion!
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
Simon Cook and WESS students releasing fish into the pond (before social distancing)
Meet a Frog Pond local...
About the Striped Marsh Frog
- Long-term West End local
- ‘tock tock’ call
- ground-dwelling frog
Meet a Frog Pond local...
About the Green Tree Frog
- West End local
- tree-dwelling frog
Striped Marsh Frog By LiquidGhoul at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.
php?curid=4247345
By William Kreijkes - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.
php?curid=5583008
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
Nature PlayWhen school resumes after the Easter break (health restrictions permitting), students will be treated to a new nature play zone at the end of the oval along Jane Street. Designed to assist with gross motor skills and encourage imagination and play, the nature play zone will run along the fence line and include stumps, wooden log balance beams, a yarning circle and sand pit.
There will also be a new, more robust fence along Jane Street, to keep WESS students safe. WESS has taken this opportunity to also move the external gate more closely with the zebra crossing on Jane Street.
Turning this ...
Into this ...
Proposed design
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
Nature Play elements
Our new Jane St WESS fence will be built to the Department of Education’s standards,
2.1m high with flat tops.
New WESS fence for Jane St To keep our WESS children safe while they play in the new nature play area, a more robust fence will be installed along Jane St.
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
Nature Play elements
Take out1,180+ students … a huge amount of waste removed from landfill just from going waste-free on a Wednesday! Imag-
ine the difference we can make!
We hope that one day will eventuate to every day.
1BF’s Pearl role-modelling a waste-free lunch
Introducing Waste-free Wednesday‘We want the name to stick, so the habit will too!’ Waste-free Wednesday instigator and Year 1 teacher, Mrs Beth Fergie.
Waste-free Wednesday is set to become a WESS institution, reducing the amount of waste WESS sends to landfill. It will start in Term 2.
What is Waste-free Wednesday?
A Wednesday lunch without wrappers and packaging. WESS, like all schools, can produce large amounts of waste. We aim to send as little waste as possible to landfill.
Students and families will learn environmentally friendly habits and attitudes and we’ll do our bit to support the health of our environment.
We want your support for Waste-free Wednesday
WESS’s culture is unlike other schools. We’re known for our community and our diversity. As a large, yet close-knit community, if we jump on Waste-free Wednesday there is no doubt about the positive impact WESS will have on the environment.
We want to empower our students to create change and “make the world a better place.”
Future waste-free ideas
Waste-free Wednesday is a trial initiative for a bigger sustainability project. Enrolment numbers are growing, we are watching the expansion be built and it’s a great time to introduce opportunities to better our community and support our school values: Community, Confidence, Compassion, Creativity, and Challenge.
Mrs Fergie and 1BF’s James are not happy with lunch-time waste!
If you have any questions regarding the construction, please email the project team at [email protected]
6 ways to go waste-free on a Wednesday (or even better, every day)1. Invest in a non-toxic and durable lunch box or use one you already have at home...it does not need to be fancy.
2. Swap plastic wrap for beeswax wraps or reusable containers.
3. Swap pre-packaged fruit juice and milk containers for reusable stainless steel or BPA free plastic water bottles.
4. Swap single-use sandwich bags for reusable sandwich bags. These can be purchased from many online retailers and local health food stores, though reusable containers work just as well.
5. Swap plastic utensils for stainless steel, BPA free plastic, or bamboo cutlery.
6. Swap pre-packaged yoghurt tubs and sachets for reusable stainless steel or BPA free plastic containers.
Snr Cst Sandi with WESS’s Luca (before social distancing)
Local Senior Constable Sandi on WESS
We asked our friendly West End Community Beat Officer, Sandrene (Sandi) Trembath about West End and our school. Sandi is a familiar face around WESS–keeping the community safe, preventing and solving crime, and talking to people about what’s going on in our suburb!
What do you love about West End?
It’s a place where everyone is included, and differences are valued.
What do you think about the school’s expansion?
I can’t wait until it’s finished! I’m looking forward to the café so that we can have ‘Coffee with a Cop!’ I’m also looking forward to the new police station being next door, so I can see the kids more often!
What advice do you give WESS students who want to work for the police when they are older?
To be a police officer, it’s ideal to be a good all-rounder! The Queensland Police Service needs people who are good at reading and writing as well as problem solving. You also need to be able to stay calm under pressure; and have common sense. You need to be fairly fit and have good computer skills. But most importantly, you need to be able to communicate with many different types of people, as well as people who are really angry or sad.
‘You will see me wearing this badge. It means the Queensland Police Service supports your right to love whoever you like.’
