The Master Plan

The Master Plan was developed by Architects Hayball Leonard Stent under the direction of the D.E.T. (Depart. Education & Training) Fitzroy High Planning Committee. The Planning committee consisted of DET representatives, both from facilities and curriculum development, teachers & some principals from surrounding High schools, parent representatives of surround primary schools and community representatives.

DET facilities have a standard brief (room types and sizes) for a school of 375-400 students. This formed the basis of the Master plan.

The total floor area of existing buildings exceeded the area allowance for a 375-400 student school. It was decided to demolish some of the existing buildings rather than leave them empty and potentially unsafe. The 3 storey library building behind the gym fell into this category as it contained some asbestos insulation, and had been badly vandalized. It was also poorly connected to the rest of the school buildings.

To facilitate an innovative teaching program the Planning committee varied the brief, while keeping within the overall area allowance for a 375-400 student school.

Some technology and Art areas were combined to created multi-use spaces. This was done so that mixed classes could be held that, for example, could have some students doing wood work while others did metal work. It also used space more efficiently, which freed it for other uses.

A standard 375-400 student school has 6 classrooms (called GPCs - General Purpose Classrooms). One of the current educational ideas for the middle years is to give students their own room and teacher, as in primary schools. To achieve this an extra 6 GPCs are incorporated.
Eight GPCs were located on the 1st floor of the main building, giving each year 7 & 8 student their own classroom. The remaining 4 GPCs are on the 2nd floor for years 9 & 10 and will be used in a more traditional role.

This created a shared 'zone' at ground level, a year 7 & 8 'zone' on the 1st floor and a years 9 & 10 'zone' on the 2nd floor. Years 9 & 10 also have a Common room to help foster responsibility amongst these years.

DET would not allow the Planning committee to include years 11 & 12 in the Master plan as the minister only announced the opening of a year 7 to 10 school. However, possible locations for additional building work were identified for future 11 & 12 accommodation.

The original report into establishing Fitzroy High talked about setting up a teacher development centre where teacher training and educational research could occur. This has been accommodated as the Teacher Development Unit (TDU). This facility is for the use of trainee teachers and the holding of seminars, lectures etc. for teachers. It includes a lecture space that can be divided into two seminar spaces, and two separate work rooms.

Minimal permanent on-site car parking has been provided. An area of the hard paved play area off Michael street has been allocated for out of hours overflow parking. This would be utilized for the gym, TDU events etc.

The Plans
The drawings were prepared by Hayball Leonard Stent. The actual drawings, complete with legend and title block, are A1 size.

You can download Adobe PDF files of these drawings from the masterplan download page. Below are image reductions of those drawings. Click on the image to see a larger version, or the get PDF link to open a PDF version. The PDF version is more readable but a lot larger (so will take longer to appear).