Point Cook school design unveiled

Initial designs for a new Point Cook senior campus. Picture: supplied

This is your first look at a new Point Cook senior campus catering for years 10 to 12.

Altona MP Jill Hennessy last week unveiled initial designs for Point Cook South Senior Secondary College that include a three-storey building with performing arts and physical education facilities, two mixed-use basketball/netball courts and a sports oval.

Star Weekly understands the state government has faced challenges in acquiring a site for the school, but is finalising arrangements for compulsory acquisition of a parcel of land.

Work will now begin on creating detailed architectural designs and a master plan for the school. Point Cook South Senior Secondary College is an interim name that is likely to be changed before the school opens its doors.

Ms Hennessy said that once open, the school would accommodate 1100 students in years 10 to 12.

“The design incorporates community feedback and the latest in architecture techniques to create a great new local school that families can be proud of,” she said.

But Point Cook parent Caryn Auld has questioned the timeline for the project.

Ms Auld, who has one child in grade 6 and another in year 7, said Labor had first promised this school in the lead-up to the 2014 state election. She was disappointed to find that the original completion date of 2020 listed on the Victorian School Building Authority website had been changed to “to be confirmed”.

“I am left to wonder what the point of conducting a community engagement evening in 2017 was if no land has been acquired and no proposed construction date forth coming,”
Ms Auld wrote in an email sent to Ms Hennessy, Education Minister James Merlino and Premier Daniel Andrews last week.

“With many prep–9 schools at capacity … where do you expect all these children to go for their senior school education?”