Tradies step up the pace to put finishing touches on two school sites set to open next month

Time is running out for tradies who have stepped up the pace at two new South East Queensland schools in a bid to make the $160 million facilities be ready for the first day of term in 2024. Check on their progress.

Builders have stepped up the pace at worksites for two new primary schools in southeast Queensland as the January opening deadline looms.

Workers and tradies have been putting in the hours around the clock at Redland Bay’s new Scenic Shores State School and at Ipswich’s Bell Bird Park.

Both schools will cater for Prep to Year 6 students when Term 1 starts on January 22.

Time frames were tight with ADCO Construction starting work at both sites for the $160 million projects at the beginning of 2023.

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Excavators and piles of dirt remain onsite with ADCO workers onsite six days a week to try to meet the January deadline. Work will also include widening the road to allow for school traffic. Pictures and video: Judith Kerr

Scenic Shores State School principal Sue Hendriks and Bell Bird Park principal Roger Sheehan oversaw the first lot of enrolments for their new schools in October.

The new Ipswich state school was designed to take the enrolment pressure off nearby Kruger State School and Augusta State School.

Still a bit of work to do before term starts next month. Picture: Judith Kerr

Education Queensland, which plans for new schools by monitoring enrolment growth across the state, this week launched the start of construction of two more schools south of Brisbane.

A new Prep to Year 6 primary school for Park Ridge-Logan Reserve got under way to meet a January 2025 opening date.

A high school at the campus, previously planned to open in January, 2024, was put on temporary hold after changes to federal laws protecting koalas ruled out using land originally earmarked for the facility.

Principal of Redland Bay’s second primary school Sue Hendriks. The school will be known as Scenic Shores State School.

Stage 1 of the new Park Ridge and Logan Reserve school will include a long-daycare centre and kindergarten along with classrooms for music, cooking, art, science, robotics, a multipurpose hall with a stage and an outdoor multipurpose court.

Stage 2 will include the senior campus and when completed, the facility will provide state-run education for those aged from 6 months to year 12 with kindy, prep, primary and secondary campuses all expected to use the same entrance to the site.

The new school was designed to take the pressure off the local school network and provide enrolment relief for state schools at Crestmead, Marsden and Logan Reserve.

It will open in January 2025 with enrolments opening after the appointment of the principal in mid-2024.

Logan MP Linus Power at the Park Ridge site this week where a school will open in 2025. Picture: Supplied

Yet to be named, it will be one of three new primary schools set to open in Logan in 2025 and 2026 along with four others across the state.

Over the next two years, schools will also be built at Holmview, Greater Flagstone, both in Logan, as well as Caboolture West, Caloundra South, Ripley Valley and a new high school at Collingwood Park.

In October, the plans for a new state primary school at Holmview reignited a decade-long campaign to ditch a wildlife corridor, which residents described as an “animal deathtrap”.

The state government is also considering building new primary schools at Burpengary East, Redbank, Springfield and Toowoomba but has not allocated funding for any of those projects.