Take a look inside Adelaide Botanic High School

Adelaide’s landmark new high school opened its doors to 350 students for the first time today. Take a look inside and meet its first student.

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Adelaide’s landmark new high school was 100 Year 9s short of capacity when it opened today, but kids may well flock there when they find out how late the school day starts.

Adelaide Botanic High principal Alistair Brown said students started at 9.25am for safety reasons.

“It’s to avoid peak hour. We already know the cycle paths are highly populated. Frome Rd is very busy. (The later start) provides a much safer option for our students,” he said.

Leyla Nattrass, who started Year 8 at Adelaide Botanic High today, was the first student through the doors, arriving just after 8am.

“It’s pretty cool, it’s massive and lots of levels,” she told ABC 891.

“I have lots of friends from my old school coming here.”

Father Peter said his daughter was excited to start at the new school.

“She was confident and she was excited about the new building and the opportunity to pursue her interests in drama and meet new people,” Mr Nattrass told The Advertiser.

“We liked the school for its focus on wellbeing, science and technology as well as its creative side.”

Leyla Nattrass starts Year 8 at Adelaide Botanic High today. Picture: AAP Image/Brenton Edwards

An auditorium inside the new Adelaide Botanic High School. Picture: AAP / Kelly Barnes

Mr Brown said a late start was also beneficial to learning because research on adolescents showed they would be more alert then.

He did not know of any other Adelaide school doing the same.

Staff begin at 8.25am and students finish at 4pm.

The school is set to be one of South Australia’s most expensive public schools.

It charges an $855 annual “materials and services” fee as well as expecting students to have laptops.

Opening day for the new Botanic High School. Picture: AAP Image/Brenton Edwards

The foyer of the new Adelaide Botanic High School. Picture: AAP / Kelly Barnes

The school opens today with Year 8 at capacity of 250 students, plus 100 Year 9s.

Touring the school last year with Premier Steven Marshall, Education Minister John Gardner said the Year 9 vacancies were understandable given it was a big decision for families to move a student who had already done a year of high school elsewhere.

The new Adelaide Botanic High School will open from term 1 2019. Picture: AAP / Kelly Barnes

Mr Gardner said the $100 million school, which will eventually grow to 1250 students as the first cohort flows through to Year 12, was on budget.

An agreement to use Adelaide University playing fields was in place for next year, he said.

Mr Marshall called it a “lighthouse school” and “a pathfinder for where education is going” that would take enrolment pressure off Adelaide High and other inner suburban schools.

An artist's impression of the exterior of Adelaide Botanic High School.

Mr Brown said the hi-tech school would “bridge the gap between school and the real world”.

“We’ve got to be adaptable and we’ve got a building that will adapt to whatever’s required,” he said. “The (learning) spaces can open up and close down. It’s completely flexible.”

As schools begin to return today, 13,500 Receptions start their first day in the public system.

They will be among 176,000 students in all year levels at 513 public schools.

Across the private sector, 95,000 students return or begin this week in Catholic and independent schools.