Year Seven Centre, Mandurah Catholic College

Mandurah Catholic College is a K-12 campus and has decided to accommodate secondary year seven students in a renovated building redesigned as a Year Seven Centre to cater for the specific needs of this group.

The existing block had been built incrementally in four stages; each classroom was self contained and did not encourage any sense of a community or that collaboration between class groups was possible.

A series of workshops were held over a period of approximately four months from September to January 2011. The workshops were attended by the entire Secondary School leadership team as well as College Board members, students, teachers and the architects.

Example projects from other schools were discussed and commented on with consideration of the ways in which students would learn in different settings.

The education brief was developed over a period of several months and can be simply defined:

• Provide a shared space between classrooms.
• Create a sense of identity for the year group – not just timetabled general learning areas
• Provide an innovative design solution to deliver varied learning environments.
• Utilise flexible furniture and equipment to deliver versatility and flexibility
• Classrooms should be open to adjoining spaces, be light and airy and have strong visual connections to well designed garden areas.

Looking back at the completed building; the key outcome is that the existing individual classrooms along a verandah have been transformed into a flexible group of learning areas with shared access to a large open indoor space.

Year seven students have ownership of the building as a home base in their first year in secondary school. It is self contained including classrooms, assembly space, staff offices, lockers and toilets allowing a good deal of each day to be spent in the building.

This construction has provided students with an optimum learning environment that enables them to make best use of technology and learn in a stimulating purpose-built environment. Students and teachers are delighted with the new facilities.