Rochester Secondary College will have access to a portion of its flood-damaged classrooms as early as next week as repair works continue on the site.
The college has taken extraordinary steps to ensure a smooth transition back onto its Rochester site after students travelled for two months last year to Bendigo.
College principal Melissa Gould said the college was providing all students with stationary packs and books to support all families.
And it looks likely it will be only short-term pain for students and staff of the college.
“We hope to back in our new and improved school by the end of term term,” Ms Gould said.
There is also a significant focus on mental health as the college aims put a series of support networks in place for the school community to start the year.
“We have a Mental Health Practitioner on staff to support students and a dedicated Wellbeing and Inclusion Team to support students and families,” Ms Gould said.
“Our Year Level coordinators are a great support for students and families and can answer most questions or refer people to the right places.”
She also said State School Relief had been a great support to families supplying vouchers for uniforms.
“Staff are also working closely with headspace to ensure they can support students, and we will facilitate access to ensure they have a presence within the school,” Ms Gould said.
Leading the mental health and wellbeing support space is assistant principal Chris Sanders, responsible for co-ordinating the wellbeing team.
“Our mental health practitioner is Kirsty Turner and our wellbeing and inclusion leader is Kate Taylor,” she said.
Others members of the wellbeing space are: Year 7-9 leader Lauren Pellegrino, Year 10-12 leader Steve Warren, and year level coordinators Brendan Moyle (Year 7), Tom Thorm (Year 8), Phoebe Cuttriss (Year 9), Mitch Bright (Year 10), Anna Oliver (Year 11) and Rachel Whipp (Year 12).
Ms Gould said all classes were being staged in portable buildings, with a goal of returning soon to existing buildings.
“We have transportable classrooms and administration buildings on site to house the whole school. We are hopeful we may get access to the Technology classrooms early next week,” she said.
“All students will start 2023 on site in Rochester.”
Ms Gould said the significant interruption to the classroom space did not restrict the 2023 curriculum
“Our teachers are incredibly flexible and determined and we will have a full offering of subjects on offer in 2023,” she said.
“We have overcome many adversities, but we continue to put the needs of our students first.”
Ms Gould said the repair work would be ongoing, but the technology building, the science and art building and the CVCC would be the first buildings available to students — hopefully in the next month.
The school is operating from a temporary canteen, out of a purpose-built shipping container.
“Our menu will be limited, but we will still be able to provide this service. We will need to wait for the CVCC to be recommissioned to access a stadium, but all our PE classes will operate as normal,” she said.
College enrolment numbers were “holding steady’’ according to the college principal, who could not be certain of exact numbers until the school year got more into a flow.
There are 60 Year seven students in 2023 and 37 Year 12 students.
Ms Gould said a number of students were still living in Bendigo, Echuca, Moama and Tongala — travelling to Rochester every day to attend school.
“We have had about 12 students enrol in other schools due to where they are living,” she said.
A dedicated bus is running from Elmore to support families located there.
Rochester Secondary College’s administration is located at the northern end of the transportable buildings, with parents and visitors required to access administration from the service road off the Northern Hwy.
The college has access to the oval and outside basketball courts, but shade is an issue and students and staff are being encouraged to wear hats.
While most staff members are living in temporary accommodation there has not been a significant change to personnel.
“We did lose staff members because of the impact of the floods, but most have returned in 2023 — even though they are living in temporary accommodation and continue to battle to rebuild their own homes,” Ms Gould said.
The college is working closely with the primary school to coordinate student transport and buses and as buildings become available will be able to offer access to spaces and resources.
Rochester secondary has welcomed Melissa Clark, Mitch Bright, Rueben Hooper and Monique Hargood this year and Anita White returns from leave.
“We have 46 staff members this year with a mixture of teachers and education support staff,” Ms Gould said.
“We are incredibly excited to be back in Rochester this year.
“We know we have many hurdles ahead of us but we know with the support of the community we will get there.
“We ask for everyone to be patient and together we can make this work.”