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A new school hall - what a feeling

"I'm going to do a Toyota jump when it's finished."

That's the promise made by Ruth Steel, the very excited P&C President of a Brisbane primary school anticipating the completion of their eagerly awaited Building the Education Revolution (BER) funded hall.

"I've been involved in this project for quite a few years. To see the walls now going up, it nearly brings me to tears. It really does," said Mrs Steel.

For the last 11 years the parents of students at Bald Hills State School, one of Queensland's oldest primary schools, have been planning and fundraising for a school hall.

While they were confident last year that they had sufficient funds to begin work on the new hall, timelines and the scale of the project were turned on their head when the school received $3 million in funding for a multi-purpose hall and resource centre extensions under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) element of the Australian Government's BER program.

Principal of the 617-student school, Keith Warwick, said the comprehensive planning undertaken meant the school community had obtained extensive feedback from students, parents, teachers and the general community about what they wanted from a new hall.

The hall will be able to seat around 1000 people and feature a large multipurpose sporting space, large performance stage to support the schools drama program, an instrumental music space, and a large commercial style kitchen to cater for events being run in the hall.

"In constructing the hall we've looked at maximising every dollar. We've pushed things with our designers and with the builder Hutchinson's and really squeezed every possible dollar out of the project," Mr Warwick said.

Other P21 funded projects at the school include a major extension to the schools resource centre, and the creation of a work space with a strong science and technology focus to support the school's strong environmental program.

Mr Warwick said while the new hall will provide many benefits for the school, its importance also for the local community shouldn't be underestimated.

"This new hall will connect us even more strongly with the local community. There aren't enough halls available for hire locally. There's much demand from sporting and cultural organisations as well as for other community events.

"The whole BER program has been a great success for us. We haven't had one hiccup, issue, complaint or concern. It has been wonderful for us," he said.

Barry Butterworth, a construction manager with Hutchinson Builders, has welcomed his company's involvement in BER projects, such as the construction of the new school hall at Bald Hills State School.

"It's keeping people in jobs. We've had up to 20 workers, including four apprentices, involved in construction at the school at any one time.

"There's no doubt that Building the Education Revolution is keeping the commercial construction industry alive at the moment and with Round 2 and 3 of the Primary Schools of the 21st Century program to come, should continue to do so for the next 18 months," he said.

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