Snowy Mountains Grammar School – Building Our Future
Master Plan Update – Stage 1 and 2
The Snowy Mountains Grammar School Board and School Principal Dr Andrew Bell are delighted to provide an update on the Master Plan and advise that, subject to approvals, building works are planned to commence later this year on both Stage 1 – Learning Hub and Stage 2 – Sports Precinct.
Dr Bell declared the development as ‘one of the more important milestones for the School in its short 25 Years’ and added he was ‘elated for our whole School community, who deserve a high-quality facility, where our students and teachers will benefit from a beautiful yet practical and inspiring environment to enjoy now and well into the future’.
The new Master Plan for SMGS was unveiled in December 2019 which outlined the vision for future campus development. Importantly, it was announced that the first stages of the Master Plan would commence planning in 2020.
The School’s vision for its campus is to create a contemporary state-of-the-art environment to further optimise a learning experience for our students that is in harmony with its local alpine environment and respects the heritage of its historic site, formerly part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority. The School, a K-12 co-educational boarding School in Jindabyne, was founded in 1996 and has long been recognised as a leader in education across the Snowy Monaro region and across Australia.
Stage 1 – Learning Hub
As a multi-award-winner of the Educator Magazine’s Innovative Schools Award, it is not surprising that the detailed design for the New Learning Hub is intuitive, considered and forward-thinking.
The large two-storey Learning Hub will house a wide range of stimulating internal learning facilities, equipped with the latest technology, diverse flexible learning areas, modern science laboratories, a digital technology and robotics room, art room and display gallery, a state-of-the-art design and technology workshop, conference rooms, study spaces and student and staff amenities. A key feature of the design will enable the outdoor spaces to be incorporated into the learning environment.
With students and teachers scheduled to commence Term 1, 2023 in the new building, Dr Bell said that the new Stage 1 Learning Hub will ‘perfectly complement our focus on people and programs and provide an ideal balance to further optimise learning’.
Stage 2 – Sports Precinct
The new Sports Precinct is to be built on the north-east side of the current campus. This area will provide access to more green space and a sports oval, two high-quality multi-purpose outdoor courts and cricket nets, and a shade structure for spectators. The fully fenced facility will offer potential opportunities to add other recreational and competitive sports in the future. It will also enable us to expand lunchtime play areas, with more room to move and socially gather, all while looking out onto beautiful Lake Jindabyne and the Snowy Mountains.
Chairman of the Board, Mr Michael Jones (OAM) also acknowledged the dedication and hard work of many individuals and the Physical Resources Group sub-committee of the Board throughout the extensive planning stage and now looks forward to the physical component of the project evolving.
The School has partnered with several specialist firms who enabled the inspired vision of the School to come to fruition. These include Munns Sly Moore Architects, New Learning Environments, Spectrum Property and Projects, and Dabyne Planning. Arising from the collective work, the School Board has now submitted a Development Application (DA) for each project to the Snowy Monaro Regional Council for consideration, subject to approval.
Further detail of the building design layout and additional information will be available in the coming weeks. The following link https://future.smgs.nsw.edu.au/ will provide you with additional viewing and this landing page will be further updated prior to the conclusion of Term 1.
For media enquiries, contact SMGS Marketing and PR Officer, Brooke Darlington on brooke.darlington@smgs.nsw.edu.au.
On Thursday, 5th December, the unveiling of Snowy Mountains Grammar School’s 2020-2024 Strategic Plan and first-ever Campus Master Plan by the school’s Board of Directors and Leadership team was the culmination of an outstanding year for the school.
At twenty-four years old, SMGS has long been recognised as a leader in education across the Snowy Monaro region. With the development of the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan and Campus Master Plan, Snowy Mountains Grammar School aims to become one of the premier K-12 co-educational day and boarding schools in Australia.
The school, which was founded in 1996 on a precinct formerly used as a maintenance depot for the pioneering Snowy Mountains Authority Hydro-Electric Scheme, is nestled in the foothills of Australia’s stunning alpine region and located beside the shores of the beautiful Lake Jindabyne.
Our current campus facilities highlight the school’s deep sense of history with its unique, industrial-edge buildings. Now, In combination with sustainable growth and interest (with almost an 18% increase in the full-time student population since the end of 2016 and it is expected that the start of 2020 will represent almost a 25% increase since 2016), it is the perfect time to further improve the school’s facilities. The vision for the new, modern learning spaces will complement the existing buildings with relevant organic and local materials in keeping with the Snowy Mountains area.
The new learning spaces will include: general learning areas, dedicated specialist learning areas, a village green and grand verandah, gym and fitness facilities, community and shared-use facilities, multi-purpose courts and sports fields, a café precinct, and modern and integrated technology.
SMGS Principal, Dr Andrew Bell, said, “In the past we have had a strong focus on people and programs, which has underpinned the ethos of the school. It’s really exciting that the school is thriving, and now is the right time for us to evolve the school further by strategically mapping out the physical resources of the campus design. This will allow the school to further mature and optimise the learning experience for our students.
“… all of this is designed to take advantage of our wonderful location and to develop our school so that it feels like a place that our students, staff and our community wants to be. It will not have hard clinical surfaces found in a lot of schools, but will be authentic to our local environment.”
The completion of the SMGS Master Plan and Strategic Plan comes at an exciting time for the Snowy Monaro region, with the announcement of Jindabyne as a Special Activation Precinct. Dr Bell added, “It is important for us to embrace our past, be proud of where we are now and be well prepared for our future.”
Further information about SMGS’ Master Plan and Strategic Plan can be viewed via the following website: https://future.smgs.nsw.edu.au/
For media enquiries, please contact SMGS Marketing and PR Officer, Brooke Darlington on brooke.darlington@smgs.nsw.edu.au or on 02 6457 1022
Looking back over the last three years:
Since 2016, SMGS has won three national education awards and has been a finalist in six others.
- Recipients of the 2019 Australian Snowsports School of the Year
- 2019 Finalists in the Australian Education Awards in the following categories:
- Regional School of the Year
- Best Co-Curricular Program
- Boarding School of the Year
- 2019 Association of Independent Schools National Virtual Debating competition – 3rd Place – Year 7 & 8
- In 2018 we won Boarding School of the Year at the Australian Education Awards
- Mountain Bike Australia School of Merit
- We are proud to deliver the Duke of Edinburgh International Award
- 2018 HSC – no. 1-performing school in the Snowy Monaro region
- 2018 NAPLAN – no. 1-performing school in the Snowy Monaro region
- 2018 Australian Education Awards – Boarding School of the Year winner
- 2017 Educator Magazine Innovative Schools winner – Let’s Explore (Kindergarten transition program)
- 2016 Educator Magazine Innovative Schools winner – Academies of Excellence