A Sunshine Coast school’s much-anticipated new campus is poised to open early next month.
Students and teachers of Suncoast Christian College will get a glimpse of the state-of-the-art building – designed to challenge traditional ways of teaching and learning – on Thursday, ahead of its official opening on September 4.
The new campus includes flexible environments that are designed support the school’s ‘team-teaching’ pedagogy.
The classrooms feature a range of functional design features, such as bleachers, breakout rooms, curtains and acoustic treatments, to facilitate a variety of learning modes allowing teachers to modify and tailor lessons to the specific abilities and needs of individual students and varying group sizes.
Teachers and teacher’s assistants will work together over two levels with students in Years 1 through 6.
Suncoast Christian College principal Greg Mattiske said classes could be enriched by the new facilities.
“By providing teachers with a collaborative, modern space that allows them to cater to a wide range of student needs, we are facilitating the best social, emotional and academic outcomes for our pupils,” he said.
With an approach focused on stage rather than age, the new layout will provide flexible and collaborative environments where the school’s team of dedicated Christian teachers will provide the best in contemporary education.
Heralded as a game-changer in educational design, the new building has been brought to life by renowned architects m3 Architecture, which is known for pushing the boundaries when it comes to intuitive buildings and modern design.
Anticipation for the new-look campus has been slowly building since the designs were unveiled in 2021.
Since then, the school announced plans to offer individuals and families the chance to have their names immortalised into one side of the new primary school building, through the use of stainless steel laser-etched discs.
“It is an exciting time to see years of vision being brought to life in front of us, culminating in a state-of-the-art, intuitively designed building,” Mr Mattiske said.
“Now it is up to our wonderful educators to harness the building’s full potential for the benefit of each and every student.”
Founded on reclaimed farming land in 1979 as the Suncoast Christian Academy, the school’s first building was an old pineapple packing shed.
It has since become a prestigious educational facility with almost 1000 students, boasting among the most advanced school buildings on the Sunshine Coast.
The new campus is phase one of a 25-year master building plan as the school looks to add another 100 students in response to a growing student population.