New Port Melbourne school to pay homage to the Spirit of Tasmania

Victoria’s newest bayside school will be built to pay homage to areas maritime history, and its design will resemble a local landmark.

Designs for a new vertical secondary school at Fishermans Bend.

Victoria’s newest bayside school will be built to pay homage to the Spirit of Tasmania.

Designs to be floated on Monday show the secondary college at Port Melbourne will have layered classrooms that resemble the ship’s levels.

The four-storey school also includes “references” to shipping container yards and sand formations found in the area before European settlement.

Albert Park MP Martin Foley said the school would cater for Fishermans Bend’s growing number of families.

“The new school design honours the area’s maritime history and will deliver a 21st century education — setting students up with the skills they need for life and future jobs,” he said.

The secondary college is one of seven vertical schools to be built in Victoria to cater for swelling student numbers.

Designs for a new vertical secondary school at Fishermans Bend.

The school is designed to look like the Spirit of Tasmania.

Designs for a new vertical secondary school at Fishermans Bend.

Designs for a new vertical secondary school at Fishermans Bend.

The gymnasium at the new secondary school at Fishermans Bend.

Designs for a new vertical secondary school at Fishermans Bend.

The sky-high schools have already popped up in Prahran, South Melbourne and Richmond, with others planned for Docklands, McKinnon and the old Fitzroy Gasworks site.

It comes as Victoria braces to add an extra 80,000 students to its public school system by 2023 — taking the state’s cohort to more than 1,074,000 pupils.

The state government promised before last November’s election to open 100 new schools over eight years.

Many will have a hi-tech focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and maths.

The Fishermans Bend school will include a robotics workshop and a digital technology and fabrication lab.

MORE EDUCATION NEWS:

PARENTS SCHOOLED FOR ‘DANGEROUS’ DROP-OFF TACTICS

BEST EDUCATION GUIDES FOR PARENTS

THE CAREER WOMEN ARE NOW GRAVITATING TO

Education Minister James Merlino said last month the school building blitz was designed to keep pace with state’s growth.

“Victoria is undergoing significant changes,” he said.

“So we’re responding to demographic shifts. We’re seeing more young families than ever before choosing to live in the inner city.”

Early works on the Fishermans Bend school will start later this month, with it due to open in 2022.

[e-mail]

@moniquehore