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Coralie McAlister, principal of Majura Primary School in the ACT, describes the school's innovative plan for revitalising its outdoor environments.
In 2005, Majura Primary School received a grant to upgrade its interiors. So, when I became principal in 2006, the insides were looking fabulous. Unfortunately, the combination of drought, lack of infrastructure and faulty irrigation had left our outdoor spaces looking quite desolate. Our school community, especially the children, had frequently indicated that they wanted to improve these exterior spaces, so I started a revitalisation project.
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The project
I was very lucky that an expert in creating community spaces, Barbara Wheeler, has a child at the school. She approached me, offering to help run a process of community consultation.
Barbara and I worked out that by terminating our grounds’ maintenance contract, we could divert funds to pay for the services of a landscape architect to produce a plan of five different spaces. Neil Hobbs, a local award-winning architect, said he’d love to be involved.
A child-driven process
We agreed from the beginning that we wanted the process to be child-driven: we wanted our children to have the chance to express what kind of space they’d like to have.
I created an environment committee made up of two children from every class and we went on excursions to places like Malkara School, which has a sense–touch playground, and Curtin Primary School, who have play equipment for children with disabilities. We took photos of these facilities and our own school, and the children developed a PowerPoint presentation (available on the Majura Primary School website: www.majuraps.act.edu.au).
The presentation asks four questions:
- What is this space used for?
- How does it make me feel?
- How would I like it to feel?
- What would I like to see there?
Community consultation
All of our classes went on a tour of the school and watched the presentation. Following this, we letter-dropped, inviting members of the local community to go through the same process.
Through these consultation sessions we decided that we wanted our exterior spaces to be:
- sustainable – to be water-wise and use native plants. The school is part of the Mount Majura corridor which is something we wanted to emphasise in the design, in order to encourage local conservation groups to get involved.
- creative – filled with inspirational and interactive art.
- owned by the community – rather than putting up a fence, we want to invite our community into the spaces.
We presented the results at community forum where there was a further opportunity to make changes, before a plan was ratified. Neil Hobbs was present through the whole process, recording responses from the children and community. He took all of this information and developed a master plan.
Future plans
Some of the features planned for development over the next two–three years include:
- an environment courtyard with chooks and a garden
- a showpiece central courtyard with an amphitheatre, encircled by pergolas connected to each of the classrooms
- ramps for wheelchair access, with a dry creek bed underneath them
- a front space with seats for parents, containing artwork by local artists
- two playgrounds with native grasses and a coloured path to link them.
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The next stage
The master plan was presented to the community in March this year. It included photos of the current locations with projections for the future. The next stage for us is to use this material for grant requests and to involve local businesses as partners. As in the early stages, we plan to include our children, parents and local community every step of the way.
Coralie McAlister
Majura Primary School
Coralie.McAlister@ed.act.edu.au
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