Currambena Primary and Preschool

Building the Education Revolution

Commonwealth funded

Primary School in the 21^st Century (PS21)

National School Pride (NSP)

 Hi Everyone,

 We have spoken with the architects and they have proposed some design modifications to the new classroom. The biggest changes are a simplification of the roof line, a change to the internal ceiling structure and an overall reduction in the building size. These changes should make us some significant cost savings which will begin to bring us closer to our budget. In addition there are changes to the materials that will be used and some of the detailed finishes. Once the changes have been drawn up we will pin the sketches on the notice board.

 We will be meeting with Lane Cove Council tomorrow to discuss the changes and find out how long it might take to have them approved through council. But at this stage the architects are anticipating starting on site next year. This is a delay of about 4 months – it will take completion to mid way through next year.

 Jess (jkimber01@bigpond.com or 0411220111)

Building the Education Revolution

Commonwealth funded

Primary School in the 21^st Century (PS21)

National School Pride (NSP)

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back – I hope you all had a lovely break and that you’re ready for the countdown to Christmas.

You may be wondering why the building project has not begun by now as we had anticipated. Unfortunately we are estimating a delay of between 4-8 weeks at this stage.

During the break we received tender results from 5 construction companies. These came in at significantly more than we had anticipated and have available in our budget. There are several reasons for this and one significant factor is that there are so many other school building works being undertaken in the state at the moment. There is an over-demand for builders and therefore the prices available are not very competitive. We are also facing the very common step of having to work through the project in detail with builders to make sure we are getting the best value for money and to see where easy cost-savings can be made.

We have met with our architects to discuss a way forward and our intention is to negotiate with the 2 construction companies that provided the lowest tender results. In addition we will also need to make some adjustments to the design of the building which may then require an additional application to Lane Cove Council for an amendment to the currently approved development application. Our guiding principle in making amendments will be that the building should be completed for the amount budgeted. This process needs to be done thoroughly and will take some time to work through.

We are still confident that at the end of the project we will have a beautiful new classroom to move into early next year.

The NSP grant money however is on track and the bathroom renovation in the main building is well under way. We anticipate it will take another couple of weeks to finsh.

Jess (jkimber01@bigpond.com or 0411220111)

Building the Education Revolution

Commonwealth funded

Primary School in the 21^st Century (PS21)

National School Pride (NSP)

 Hi Everyone,

The tender documentation is going out today. We should have the results from this process in about 3 weeks and then we will have a clearer picture of when we might be starting on site.

It’s now time to get the school ready for the construction….

I’m sure you’ve all noticed the fabulous tree house in the top playground area – it’s not finished yet! Thank you to Jo and Chris R for all your effort – it is the result of many hours of school meeting discussions with the kids and a lot of hard work. I’m sure it will be a very valuable addition for the kids when part of the playground is fenced off for the building project.

Vegetable Garden Working Bee this Friday 1.15pm – 2.30pm

The vegetable garden will be demolished during the period of construction and we would like to move some of the more established plants into pots. If you would like to help rescue the lemon tree and rosemary bush into pots and to help move the compost bins we are having a small working bee tomorrow.

We also need some large pots to put the plants into so if you have any spare large pots you could lend Currambena please let myself or Sally know.

Cheers

Jessica (0411220111 or jkimber01@bigpond.com)

BUILTEAM NEWS

Primary Schools in the 21^st Century

National School Pride

Building the Education Revolution – Commonwealth Assisted

 Thank you to everyone who came to the community consultation evening on Monday night. We had a good number of people turn up and all in all it was a very productive evening. We had a lot of ground (ha ha) to cover on the night and therefore ran a bit late – so thanks to all the babysitters at home!

 We managed to set some priorities in relation to the landscaping and to talk about some of the areas that needed our most urgent attention.

 I will be feeding back to Corkery Consultants a summery of the night so that they can amend the plans appropriately.

 Today we have had a very long meeting with our architects to work through the design details, the tender process and our budget. Phew…3 hours!

 We have short listed 5 construction companies that we have agreed to ask to tender the project and the documentation for this will be ready in about a week.

 Our timeline is very tight and our goal for main construction work to begin in the October school holidays is looking increasingly ambitious. We may, however, undertake some of the preliminary landscape works and at least try and aim for the demolition of the old classroom. The exact timing for this will not be known until we have our tenders back.

 We are also working towards starting some of the work for the NSP (Nation al School Pride) initiative in the school holidays -  upgrading the bathroom in the main building and adding skylights in Wendy and Olivia’s.

 See you around…

Jess

(jkimber01@bigpond.com or 0411220111)

Hi All,

 Our Development Application is still with Lane Cove Council but we anticipating the matter will be finalized very shortly – perhaps within a week or so. We will then be progressing to the tender process so that we can engage a construction company. We are still hoping we may be able to start the project in the October school holidays – although the timing is very tight.

 Speak to Aarhon Silver if you want to put some maintenance hours towards helping her clear out to old classroom – I’m sure she would welcome the help.

 Our community consultation for our Landscape master plan is on 31^st August from 7pm to 9pm. Please come along for a productive discussion on our playground and the vision for the school. This is your chance to give us your ideas about the bike rack, the play equipment, the basketball court, the vegetable garden, the vegetation, the trees, what’s missing? What we need to keep?…..

 If you could please RSVP on my email or catch me around the playground and let me know your coming.

Have a great week.

Jess

(jkimber01@bigpond.com or 0411220111)