Our long-term vision for the St Michael’s Campus
Our commitment to a holistic education is demonstrated through recent award-winning facilities delivered over the past 10 years, including The Gipson Commons, the Performing Arts Centre St George’s, the Junior School Centre for Inquiry and Innovation, and the recent Allan Pizzey building refurbishment.
Campus planning is a testament to the collective effort of our community, spanning successive cohorts of students, parents and educators, honouring the vision of those who came before us and ensuring that current and future students, along with their families, will benefit from a vibrant and enriching learning environment.
Mr Andrew Eddy, Chair of the St Michael’s Board of Directors
Our centre of interdisciplinary excellence in research, science, technology and humanities, leveraged for learning and collaboration from Early Learning through to Year 12 and a study hub for our Senior students.
Our hub for music, dance, drama, and production, setting a new standard in performing arts education built form across the sector.
An interdisciplinary research centre for Junior School students, encouraging curiosity and problem-solving.
Our most recent upgrade, the Allan Pizzey building has been refurbished throughout, providing more open spaces, natural light and world-class learning facilities to further enhance the central hub for Prep to Year 6 students.
Over the upcoming Easter holidays, we will begin the groundwork for additional playing courts, reducing our reliance on offsite venues and further enabling high-performance sport development on campus.
The new facility will include one full-size undercover outdoor court with basketball, volleyball, and netball flexibility, and a mini basketball and volleyball court.
These courts will be located on the 10 Redan Street site, an apartment building we strategically purchased in recent years.
The courts will be designed to enhance the campus with abundant greenery and spaces for social connection, as well as for alternative uses such as performances and community gatherings.
This development is part of our broader commitment to sports excellence, which includes ongoing explorations with international sporting consultants, elite coaches, partner schools and existing local partners such as Port Melbourne Football Club.
Demolition and construction will begin during the Term 1 school holidays to minimise disruption, with the courts expected to be ready for use by the start of Term 3.
The demolition of 10 Redan Street will occur in the Easter school holidays, meaning that there will be no impacts on student learning. The build of the courts will follow, and we are working with the project team on a range of noise and traffic mitigations to ensure minimal disruption to the life of our School.
Teaching staff, particularly those in S.T.E.A.M, will seek opportunities to engage students in the sport courts project for their classroom learning. This has occurred naturally with past builds, such as with The Gipson Commons in 2015, in which many students took a keen interest.
The new sport courts on the site of 10 Redan Street are expected to be completed by Term 3, with careful planning to minimise student disruption.
Our longer-term vision involves a much better resourced Aquatics facility for the benefit of St Michael’s students, including elite swimmers, as well as for other school and community groups that use our campus for swimming. With architects, sustainability planners and donors to our School, we are still in the process of envisioning the best way to do this.
As plans evolve, we will ensure that community members are kept updated, and as always, any project will be carefully planned to minimise disruption to student learning, and our neighbours.
We expect the additional sport courts to be in use not only for Physical Education lessons and inter-school competitions, but also to support our basketball, netball and volleyball development programs, as early as Term 3, 2025.
Building works such as the Court Sports project are funded through careful management of the School’s resources and philanthropic support from our community.
The new sport courts will provide additional active and passive spaces for our students from Term 3, 2025.
We do not expect disruption to the life of the School during the build of the Sports Courts, and our project team continues to work closely with academic and timetabling staff to carefully engineer the project’s timeline. Similarly, we are ensuring mitigations regarding any local traffic impacts.
Our current Master Plan provides a flexible and inspiring vision for several decades to come. Given our commitment to ensuring minimal disruption to student learning, our present focus on a Centre of Excellence for Sport, Health and Wellbeing will be staged over many years, utilising non-term time for the more disruptive moments in any project. As always, we are committed to balancing our desire for immediate student benefit with the need to ensure an optimal learning environment, every day.
Our longer-term vision involves an enhanced Aquatics facility for the benefit of St Michael’s students, including our elite swimmers, as well as for the many school and community groups that use our campus for swimming.
We are also envisioning enhancements to our hub for design and technology in the Senior School, with a goal to link Science, Technology, Art, Engineering and Mathematics (S.T.E.A.M) learning spaces across our campus, delivering outstanding interdisciplinary learning opportunities for students and staff.
With architects, sustainability planners and donors to our School, we are still in the process of envisioning the best way to achieve this.
As plans evolve, we will ensure that community members are kept updated, and as always, any project will be carefully planned to minimise disruption to student learning, and our neighbours.
