Rochester kids back at school after disaster
More than four months after their town was inundated by major flooding, excited Rochester pupils returned to their classrooms this week.
Bendigo
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The sounds of childish laughter and skipping games could again be heard across the playground at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School at Rochester this week, after it stood empty for four and a half months.
The school’s 105 students have started the new year back in their hometown after the devastating October floods forced them out of their classrooms. They finished out the 2022 school year as guests in other areas, using borrowed facilities.
Principal Liz Trewick said it was a credit to the town’s community that the school had been able to reopen so quickly.
“A lot of people worked really hard to keep us going,” she said. “They believed in us and knew we could come back for term one.”
Teachers and children had been billeted out to schools in Bendigo and Elmore while their own campus in Rochester was repaired and a demountable was installed.
“We are very grateful to the schools that opened their doors to us and it’s certainly made those relationships stronger,” Ms Trewick said. “But the children are home now and this is where they are meant to be.”
The school’s gymnasium cannot be used yet and some classrooms are closed, but the areas being used are bright and airy.
Students in one of the newly restored buildings were busy on Thursday afternoon working on art projects just before the lunch bell rang.
Grade one classmates Izzy, Violet, Harry and Hunter, were using oil pastels to create colourful background scenes for some hand drawn portraits. All agreed they were happy to be back at their own school.
“I didn’t like the bus,” said Izzy.
It’s a sentiment widely shared. Ms Trewick said she had calculated the minutes her students spent commuting last year. She had often worried about the exhaustion weighing upon them and their teachers.
“We had kids in years three to six spend 2700 minutes on buses in 30 days,” she said.
“Our prep to grade two classes spent 900 minutes on the buses because we had been able to get room for them at Elmore. It was very tiring.
“Now that we are all back there is a routine again and more stability. Wednesday was our first day back. On Tuesday we had an open for inspection day for the children to come and see the classrooms and play spaces. It was the first time they had been here since October 13.”
The school has seen a 20 student drop from last year’s enrollment. Ms Trewick said the drop was expected as some families relocated due to the floods.
“However the most important thing is that there is enough room for everybody and we are accepting new enrollments throughout the year,” she said.
The time away at different schools has inspired some lasting change. St Joseph’s staff have adopted one of the customs of a host school by flipping the lunchtime routine and sending children out to play before they eat.
A second bell rings to signal time to sit and get out the lunch boxes.
“The teachers noticed the children were a lot more settled in their afternoon classes when we did it this way. It’s working really well,” Ms Trewick said.
Ms Trewick said there was still a long way to go before the school would be fully restored, but she was confident it would happen.
She is having a wall decal made for the school to help it keep an eye on its goal and remember the words of quiet confidence that had helped it get so far, so quickly: simply ‘we’ve got this’.
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