Murray Bridge North School’s $5 million refurbishment is complete
Exclusive: New classrooms and play spaces have been finished at the primary school on Mannum Road.
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A $5 million refurbishment of Murray Bridge’s oldest school has brought new life and modern conveniences to its old stone buildings.
Gone are several of Murray Bridge North School’s wooden, transportable classrooms and 1970s additions.
Gone, too is the outdated interior of the school’s original building, parts of which dated back to 1912.
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Filling it now are eight modern, light-filled learning spaces which students moved into at the beginning of term three.
Each has all the amenities today’s students could need, like smart boards; and those you might have expected them to have already, like effective air conditioning.
There are two new SSO rooms, too; and two covered and securely fenced outdoor learning spaces have been built as well.
Junior primary students filled one of them on Monday afternoon for an unofficial opening.
Principal James Parkin said the occasion was mostly about making students aware of their role as custodians – he asked them to repeat the word a few times, to get used to it – of the new facilities.
“That means you don’t own them, but you have to look after them,” he said.
“Kids 100 years ago gave these classrooms to the kids who came after them … and now it’s your turn to have these classrooms and look after them and give them to the kids coming from kindy next year.”
Music classes performed a few pieces, a smoking ceremony was conducted and a ribbon was cut.
There are still a few things to finish off at the school – notably some landscaping around the out of school hours care service on the Mannum Road side.
An official opening, to be attended by MPs and other dignitaries, will follow in the coming months once that work has been completed.
The upgrades were originally announced in the 2017 state budget, at the same time as Murray Bridge High School was allocated $20 million for its new middle school building.
However, it took until 2021 for work to get started.
The facilities haven’t been the only change at North School this year, either – a new uniform is being phased in, too.
Disclosure: The author is a volunteer member of the governing council at Murray Bridge North School, and his daughters are students there.
