New facilities for Marshall Road State School, QLD

With their 50th anniversary coming up next year, Marshall Road State School has a lot to celebrate, including the completion of its new $1.7 million Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) performing arts centre, funded under the
Building the Education Revolution (BER).

While the school has placed much emphasis on the performing arts, it previously lacked a suitable venue to showcase its musical talent.

“The new performing arts centre will give us a chance to showcase our own talent in our own facilities, instead of going to outside venues which we’ve had to do in the past,” Principal Ian Blacklock said.

“We’ve gone from having small ensembles to having good sized bands. We now have nearly 200 students involved in our music program” he said.

Under the P21 element of BER, Marshall Road has also received a new $1.3 million resource centre. The centre was recently completed and consists of a library, audiovisual room, librarian offices and meeting rooms.

President of the school’s P&C, Narelle Mason said the new resource centre will be a fantastic facility for students.

“The kids are already excited. They can’t believe it when they see the resource centre. It’s so modern… it is terrific.

“They’ll love to come down to this library, whether to read in a comfortable space, to work on the computers or to make up videos in the new audio visual centre. I think it will really enhance their learning,” she said.

Logan Miller, project manager for Dickinson Constructions, the builders of the new facilities, said BER projects are helping construction companies keep staff which they otherwise would probably have had to lay off.

“We’ve employed about 80 tradespeople on this site, including a number of apprentices. We’ve taken another ten people on staff that we didn’t have in March.  

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