By Danielle Kutchel
Land has been secured to build the interim-named Clyde North Station Secondary College.
On Wednesday 9 December, Minister for Education James Merlino and Member for Bass Jordan Crugnale announced that land at 80 Woodfield Avenue, Clyde has been purchased to start work on the school.
The school is set to open in 2022 following community consultation earlier this year helping shape the final design.
Stage one of the project will deliver an administration and learning resource centre building, a STEM building, a performing arts and physical education building, a learning neighbourhood building, car park, bike shelters, multipurpose hardcourt, and landscaped outdoor play and learning areas included.
Once all stages are completed, the school will cater for 1300 students, including 100 places for students with disabilities.
“I’m thrilled that the community’s vision for a new secondary school in Clyde is one step closer to becoming reality and that students will be able to access first-rate facilities,” Ms Crugnale said.
She added that the location of the school, in the middle of the growing Clyde community, meant that kids would be able to walk and ride to school on the connected paths through the housing estates. The new school will also be close to planned bus routes and a new train station.
Luke Abdallah, principal of nearby Grayling Primary School in Clyde North, said the new secondary college was “sorely needed” in the growing area.
“It’s going to be wonderful for the families and the community as it expands from paddocks to a whole new community,” he said.
“Certainly there will be lots of enrolments coming into the area, but with lots of new schools in the space it’s certainly going to ease enrolment stress for other established schools.”
Michelle Mackenlay, assistant principal at Clyde Primary School, said students and families of primary schools in the area were “very lucky” to have a new secondary school opening in such close proximity.
She added it would enhance the sense of community between schools.
“We hope to work closely with the secondary college,” she said.
