Mother Teresa Primary School

BUILDING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

Together with Catholic Education Melbourne, Pretect designed and delivered a custom school building for Mother Teresa Catholic Primary school in just 4 months.

Mother Teresa Catholic Primary school recently faced a capacity challenge that highlighted the need to expand their existing facilities. Not only was the school experiencing significant enrolment pressure, but they were also housing students from another local school that was behind schedule with their traditional on-site build of classrooms.

The predicament of their guest students was just another reason why the school welcomed Catholic Education Melbourne’s decision to opt for prefabricated building. Motivated by glowing references from the St Francis of the Fields Primary School in Strathfieldsaye and St Anthony’s School at Melton South, Catholic Education Melbourne approached Pretect with a request to design and construct an open learning area that would incorporate toilet facilities and features such as high ceilings and high light windows to maximise natural light.

Pretect designed a solution that would fit within the assigned budget, offer minimal disruptions thanks to offsite construction and deliver a building that matches the style and learning objectives of the school. When administrative and local authority delays arose, it became clear that the school’s plan with Catholic Education Melbourne to have a new classroom erected by the start of Term 1 was jeopardised.

At this point, Pretect decided to get proactive and make the most of the time that was available. As Mother Teresa would say “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin”. Pretect employed an all-hands-on-deck approach to work around the clock, even bypassing the usual summer break, to deliver the building in the shortest possible timeframe. Meanwhile, Pretect also arranged second hand transportable classrooms to be delivered to the school so students would have a learning space for the start of the school year. The fact that the majority of construction was being completed off-site made this a viable temporary solution.

The building was delivered and installed over the Easter break, ready for students to commence term 2 in April 2018 – just 4 months after receiving approval to proceed with the new building.

A beautiful, open plan space with an abundance of natural light welcomed students into a facility that was adaptable to Mother Teresa School’s many groups and learning objectives. Despite some initial obstacles, all parties worked productively and efficiently to overcome challenges and deliver the best solution to the school in the shortest amount of time. Pretect constructed another impressive custom classroom, Catholic Education Melbourne added another success story to their infrastructure development program and most importantly, Mother Teresa Catholic Primary School gained a facility that would help them to continue their fantastic work for years to come.

FEATURES

• Contract Value: $1.06M
• Total area: 656.2 m²
• Open plan, high ceilings and high light windows.
• Developed to match the styles of existing buildings
• Custom designed for school’s teaching and learning protocols