The $8 million project to rebuild Cromehurst School, which caters for students with intellectual disabilities, was officially opened at 10.00am today.
The opening was by the Member for Davidson, Jonathan O’Dea, representing the Minister for Education and Communities, the Hon Adrian Piccoli, and the Member for Bradfield, the Hon Paul Fletcher, representing the Federal Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Christopher Pyne.
Mr O’Dea said the facilities demonstrated the Government’s commitment to providing the best possible learning environments for students with special needs.
“The new classrooms are specifically designed to cater for the individual requirements of the students,” Mr O’Dea said.
“In addition to its main learning space, each classroom has break-out zones, bathrooms, a kitchen and areas for creative art, enabling play and therapy to be integrated.
“The result is a school that is an outstanding credit to everyone involved in its planning and construction, including the school community which provided so much support and input”.
The project comprised:
- The demolition of all existing buildings except Blocks B and E
- Seven new classrooms and their attached areas and facilities
- A special programs space
- Two large Covered Outdoor Learning Areas (one for each playground)
- A lift that enables full access to all areas of the school
- An administration area, and
- Renovations to Block B
Cromehurst School is a School for Specific Purposes (SSP) and currently has 55 students, aged 4 to 18, with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities. Most of them have additional needs resulting from autism, physical disabilities or other health issues.
The project was undertaken with residual Building the Education Revolution (BER) Program funding, at a cost of $7,981 million. In addition to earlier BER works, the total Commonwealth BER funding at the school has been $8.248 million.
