Margaret Hendry School – Infrastructure Updates

Week 6, Term 2 2021

As our surrounding suburbs continue to be developed and grow, so do our school enrolments. To support our school’s ongoing growth, the ACT Government is investing in our school facilities. We are excited to share with you that we are getting new playground equipment and outdoor learning areas and our Administration Building will be extended to be provide a new Learning Community that will be ready for the 2022 school year.

Playground

Back in week 3, we let you know there would be additional work being undertaken in our outdoor areas of our school. We can now announce that that this will commence from Friday,
11 June 2021, with much of the work taking place over the mid-year school holidays to reduce the disruption to our students, families and staff. Below is a plan of the exciting additions:

Work will start with installations of a produce garden, including raised garden beds, a chicken coop, garden shed, greenhouse and fruit trees. We look forward to opening a wealth of opportunities for our students and families to learn about food, nature and Science with the bonus of growing and tasting our own food.

During the June/July school holidays new playground equipment will be installed including two in-ground trampolines, a new nature play, two huge sandpits, multiple shaded outdoor learning and gathering areas and more raised garden beds. These will help us provide more play and learning areas and cater for our fast-growing student population.

New Learning Community

The new flexible Learning Community will be built by extending the Administration Building and will be ready for students from the start of the 2022 school year.

To ensure this space is ready in time, construction will begin in the June/July school holidays. Fencing to separate the construction site will be installed during the school holidays to avoid disruption to students, families and staff.

Safety and Parking

We acknowledge parking is a pressure for our school community. No construction vehicles will be permitted to park in the school’s carpark and the current number of the carparks available at the school will remain throughout the construction process.

To maintain the safety of our students, families and community, the builder’s site will fully-fenced and completely self-contained. Construction deliveries will be carefully managed to avoid pick-up and drop-off times and the speed limit of all vehicles will be at walking pace to all areas.

Entry to the school

The safety of our students and families is important to us so we will be changing the entry points to the school to accommodate the construction process. During the school holidays the school holiday program, run by Woden Community Services, will operate from the Transportable. Access will be via the Community Hub playground gate. Please see the map below:

From the start of Term 3, Monday 12 July, the main access to the school will be via the gate near the Community Hub carpark. Access to the Hall for families and children attending out-of-hours care will be via the southern doors of the Hall.

Stay tuned, as our website will soon contain a FAQ section to give families and our community the opportunity to find out more about certain topics or ask a specific question.We look forward to sharing and enjoying all these new additions with you over the coming months.