The Glenleighden School starts construction on $60m master plan to boost education opportunities
An independent Brisbane school is starting construction on a giant redevelopment to boost specialist services after facilities like Seton College will close. SEE THE PLANS
South West
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Special needs students in southeast Queensland have received a major boost with a Brisbane school starting construction on a massive $60 million revamp to its facilities, providing more than 120 additional spots over the next two years.
Speech and Language Development Australia (SALDA) turned the sod on building one of their seven-building master plan for The Glenleighden School at Fig Tree Pocket yesterday.
Building one, which will include classrooms and therapy rooms, is expected to be complete by June next year and open 70 extra spots before building two, featuring industrial and manual arts as well as IT and science rooms, starts construction in late 2022 and will add another 50 spaces.
The other stages of the master plan, scheduled to be complete within five years, include a multipurpose sports hall as well as an early childhood and preschool centre to cater for younger students.
SALDA chairman Peter Seldon said the project at the land, where they had been based for 43 years and bought off the state government last year, was three years in the making.
He also said the redevelopment would boost the specialist services available at a time when other facilities such as Seton College, in Brisbane’s south, was closing.
“I watched a show recently, where their research said that around 43 per cent of Australia’s adult population is functionally illiterate, and that just killed me and made me really sad,” Mr Seldon said.
“We also know there’s a large amount of kids who end up in the juvenile justice system because of communication issues and we want to fix these issues.
“Our aim is to help facilitate these students with diverse needs to find success within society and help them be the best version of themselves they can be and this project allows us to do that in a better way and to reach more students who need this support.
“We want to support these kids and give them the support they need, they need access to outstanding education, which is every child’s right and it’s disgusting to me that not every child has this access.
“Our team has spent thousands of hours working on our master plan to do all this and now is the fun part, seeing it all come to fruition with world class facilities to support current and future students with a language disorder.”
The Glenleighden School’s development, which is jointly-funded through Federal Government funding and loans, is expected to bring in 55 to 70 full-time construction jobs as well as 15 full-time teaching and administration jobs for each new building.
Mr Seldon said he expected all seven buildings of the master plan to be complete by the end of 2026 but the process could be quicker with more help from the state and federal governments.
“The sooner they can invest in this, the better the outcome will be for these young students, who really need these facilities,” he said.
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