Lalor Gardens Primary School

The original Lalor West Primary School building was an outdated and restrictive 1970’s teaching facility with classrooms flanking long dark corridors. The new Lalor Gardens Primary School has learning spaces of varying types and sizes that provide flexibility for individual and collaborative learning and fosters collaboration among students and teachers. This flexibility also enables the customisation of the curriculum to meet individual students’ needs and better integration and coaching from more staff members.

Creativity and problem solving skills in children and adults are stimulated by the new building’s bright, interesting spaces and décor; vivid and continually changing displays, ready access to resources such as IT, books, art & craft materials and other age-specific learning tools.

The School is organised into Junior and Senior sub-schools, each of which is divided into two learning communities and connected to the Administration hub at the centre. The interconnected plan enables easy legibility of the building for users and visitors, better management and supervision and most importantly, very convenient internal access and communication. The welcoming entrance invites exploration by the wider community and the forms and colours promote optimism.

The most significant aspect is its subdivision into four learning communities of 110-120 students each with:

• their own flexible learning spaces
• their own collaborative learning area
• their own art & project area
• their own undercover outdoor learning area adjacent to the project space
• their own small group spaces
• their own toilets and kitchen
• their own staff work area, and
• a shared outdoor courtyard

This creates a sense of ownership and respect for “their” facilities.

Each of the learning areas has external doors for direct access to outdoor learning opportunities. The school has been designed to create wind protected courtyards, regardless of the wind direction; which is an important consideration for its location in these windswept Northern suburbs.

Access to the school is controlled by the central administration area which is the obvious and only point of entry to the school with its welcoming entrance canopy. The general office and principal’s office overlook the front of the school and the entry. This is an important requirement for the safety and security of these primary school age students.

The building is designed to optimise the orientation of learning areas to natural light and minimise exposure to east and west sun. Wide verandas are provided on all sides to exclude summer sun from the internal spaces and to provide better thermal comfort. They provide important shaded and covered areas that extend the learning areas and facilitate under-cover outdoor learning activities and play areas.

The new Lalor Gardens Primary School is a wonderful, stimulating and flexible new learning facility that also contributes architecturally to present the school as a unique and special place of learning. Students are engaged, enthusiastic and are capable of achieving greater outcomes than were possible in the old school. To quote one child; “The learning spaces are big enough to allow for groups of students to learn and cosy enough to let me learn alone”.