Come and see what a difference considered learning spaces supported by dedicated, passionate DECD staff can achieve for young children at the recently transformed Swallowcliffe P-7 School.
Original building stock has been internally re-crafted to provide contemporary learning spaces with access to new outdoor learning areas. A new, dedicated STEM centre creates a striking street presence to reinforce Swallowcliffe as a school of choice, in addition to supporting stimulating and practical STEM focussed programs for a large number of children from challenging socio-economic backgrounds. The STEM Centre offers a new spatial solution to accommodate ‘hands-on’ projects through three highly flexible studios, supporting collaboration and creative thinking. The building symbolises this activity through an analogy of form inspired by origami; the act of folding paper by hand generates processes of learning, instruction, creation and crafting to produce a meaningful object of canopies, voids and drama from simple means. Patterned glazed brickwork at low level encourages tactile interaction and visual identity. High level semi-transparent polycarbonate cladding plays with natural light while low level glazing maintains visual connections to covered external testing spaces.