Rochester’s ‘portable primary school’ will be on the move again just five days before Christmas when buildings currently on the Elmore Primary School site are relocated to Rochester.
Eight classrooms and an art room have been home to the 150 Rochester Primary School students for only two weeks, but the temporary facility will be dismantled over the Christmas break and re-assembled on the flood-ravaged site in Rochester in preparation for the January 30 start to the new school year.
Principal Kate Whitford said the buildings would be set up in similarly to at the Elmore site, on the Rochester Secondary College side of the Rochester Primary School oval.
“They will start packing up on the 20th and the buildings will be ready for first day of school next year,” she said.
The Elmore site took just two weeks to be set up, with the buildings having been in storage for three years before being called into action due to the flood event.
Considering the challenges facing students, parents and teachers, the school community has remained strong — only 12 of its student body choosing to enrol elsewhere, mostly due to having to leave Rochester.
Rochester students currently catch buses in Rochester at 9am and then leave from Elmore at 3pm.
“We are really only losing half an hour a day to travel. It is a much better situation that what we faced with Bendigo,” Mrs Whitford said.
She said the Bendigo facility was great, but three weeks of travel was taking its toll on everyone before the November 28 set-up at Elmore was completed.
“What we had there was great. We had our own little space, but the Elmore site has worked well,” she said.
Mrs Whitford said she expected it to be well into term two before any of the school’s flood-damaged buildings were available for use.
“We haven’t even been able to get back on site,” she said.
“On Monday week we will be able to look at the boxes and decide what to keep or throw out.
“We weren't allowed on to the site. It was just a mess, but once we get to have a look around it will tell us what we need to go forward.”
Mrs Whitford said contractors had taken photos of items they had thrown out, which would help the school put together a list of what was in need of replacement.
She said children had “settled in well’’ for what would be a brief stay at Elmore.
“Aaron Taylor (the Elmore Primary School principal) has been great,” she said.
“They normally have only 30 kids, so this is a huge inconvenience for them. The interaction has been great with the Elmore students.”
Mrs Whitford said there had been donations to the school to assist in the recovery, with the school unable to take furniture or learning utensils, because staff had nowhere to put them.
“We are accepting donations if they contact the school’s number,” Mrs Whitford said.
“We will be letting those people know how their money was spent once we have assessed what we need.”