A million dollar hall with a million dollar view

Looking out from Withcott State School’s new multipurpose hall, you can’t help notice the view down the Lockyer Valley. It’s what school Principal, Dr Tom Otto refers to as ‘a million dollar’ view from a million dollar hall.

Located in the foothills of the Toowoomba Ranges, about 100 km west of Brisbane, the 280-student school is excited about their recently completed hall and resource centre, funded with $2 million under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) element of the Australian Government’s Building the Education Revolution (BER) program.

Sitting high on the school’s sloping site, the new hall has surprisingly good acoustics for a structure of its type and size, thanks to the walls on two sides, its insulated and lined ceiling, sound absorbing rubber coated floor and wind-down blinds.

Dr Otto said the hall, able to seat around 500 people, will be a perfect venue for the school’s choirs, concert bands and other performances.

“The school band played at our first parade and you could tell the acoustics were spot on,” he said.

The hall’s multipurpose design will also allow the facility to be used for a diverse range of other activities including PE classes, movie nights, school discos and Queensland Arts Council performances.

The school’s other addition, a new resource centre, sits further down the slope and is home to a library, computer room, an audio visual room and an outside learning area.

Dr Otto said the response from parents and community to the facilities at the school’s recent 25th anniversary celebrations was very positive.

“The parents were bowled over. They were absolutely blown away. They couldn’t believe that it could be done,” he said.

An additional $125,000 in BER National School Pride (NSP) funding has allowed the school to build an awning outside the senior classroom as an outdoor learning area and to refurbish the senior computer lab.

“I’m very happy with what we got. We were told we would get a library and an auditorium and I think we got much more than that,” he said.

P&C President, Jeff Boatfield said parents were ‘wrapt’ that a number of projects that the P&C had in the pipeline, were incorporated into the construction of the new facilities.

These included the establishment of a tiered seating grand stand outside the resource centre, complete with steps leading down to the school’s oval, sun shelters, landscaping and turfing.

“As a result, we will be able to use money raised through our fund raising on other projects, such as buying instruments for our music program,” he said.

“Building the Education Revolution is a fantastic idea, it has created a lot of work for local sub-contractors, and it is great that the money is being spent on our schools,” he said.  

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