Springfield Gardens Primary School

Case Study - Community Development

School Profile

Springfield Gardens Primary School is a Kindergarten to year 6 school, located in West Moonah, Hobart. It is nestled into the foothills of Mount Wellington and commands outstanding views of the Derwent River. The school is situated on 7 hectares of land, which adjoins a 5 hectare Glenorchy City Council reserve. The buildings are in two campuses about 300 m apart across the school oval. The school caters for a diverse socio-economic and cultural mix, which reflects the composition of the broader school community.

 Project Overview

The project involves multiple partners in enhancing community, service and recreational facilities. The school grounds and adjoining council reserve represent a 12 hectare oasis of green, open space in the midst of a dense urban housing development. The combined site is nestled into the slopes of Mount Wellington and has spectacular views over the River Derwent and provides enormous potential for the development of a wonderful community facility.

 Getting Started

This project began in January 1998. The extensive school grounds were greatly under-utilised with some of the after hours users casing considerable damage. Our broken glass bill was running at around $23 000 per annum.

 In January 1998, the Principal met with Glenorchy mayor Terry Martin to talk about what the school and council might do in partnership for the local community. The mayor was very supportive of the outline of the project and put the school in contact with the Council’s urban development officer Kristine Ancher. After quite extensive consultation, a five-year development plan was produced. The features of this are listed in the key results section. 

In 1998, the project had three main emphases:

1.      To gain political support for the proposed partnership

2.      To gain community support and feedback regarding the partnership

3.      To gain staff, student and parent support for the project

 1.             Political Support

In April 1998, the Glenorchy City council, Springfield Gardens Primary School, the Department of Education and local community representatives, signed a formal memorandum of understanding, agreeing to combine resources in the development of the site as a facility for all community members.

This was an important step in committing local government, the school and the Department to a long-term agreement which would survive any change in personnel in those three organizations.  

2.   Community support and feedback

In May 1998, we prepared a pamphlet outlining our vision for what a facility at the school might be. The leaflet included a questionnaire inviting feedback about the proposals and inviting other thoughts people might have. We also advertised a series of weekend workshops to be held in June/July of 1998. The feedback from these questionnaires and community workshops enable us to develop a plan for the combined council/school land which was then put on display for further public comment.

 3.   Staff, student and parent support for the project

Staff were very supportive of the need to upgrade student recreational facilities and were quick to support the proposed partnership with the council in improving facilities for all community members. Staff were strongly represented on the management committee and had many opportunities to contribute to the project. 

Students were invited to assist in drawing up plans for what they would like to see happen in the school and were consulted in a variety of ways. In August 1999, students raised $3000 in a bike trail-athon to help raise money for the trail which was well advanced in its planning by that time.  

 Parents were consulted through the school newsletter and Kristine invited to speak to the Parents and Friends. Some concerns included the possibility that opening up the facility to community use might result in more damage to the school property. Whether to open up or lock down was a philosophical question for the community to resolve. Happily, we can now report that the opening up philosophy has not resulted in more damage to the school. Together with many other school based initiatives, the philosophy has seen a significant reduction in our vandalism bill.

 Management

We established a Community Recreational Project management group consisting of parents, staff, Council and representatives from other government departments. The involvement of representatives from other departments was critical to our success as these people were able to help us access resources from several areas.  

The Premier (Jim Bacon), proved to be personally supportive of our endeavours and his support helped us in our dealings with various bodies. His support extended to opening the first section of our recreation trail in July 1999.

 Key results

As of November 2000, we are well advanced in our five-year plan.  

Vandalism has dropped from around $23 000 in 1998 to $3 500 last year. Another indicator that things are moving in a positive direction has been the reduction of playground harassment by 84%, from our March 1998 baseline data. We hasten to add that we have worked hard on our SSE program and this and many other initiatives have combined to contribute to these statistics.

 We completed the first section of recreation trail in January 2000 and have received funding to complete the two kilometre trail in January 2001.  

Features of the development plan

In 1998, a five-year development plan was produced and we are working towards the following. Comments in italics represent progress to date.

·        A public walking, cycling and skating trail (with dispersed skate board ramps and skating bowls) through the school grounds and council reserve area. The first section of the trail was completed in January 2000. Funding has been gained to complete this $130 000 trail in January 2001. Skateboard areas will be our next priority.

·        A fitness trail;

·        Safe bicycle routes and a bike storage area; Completed

·        Development of interesting playground spaces which can be used actively and passively.  Quiet areas, mazes seating and projects to interest all community members are planned; Substantial new seating completed. New play areas include banks of 16 swings, slides, prep play centres and many other facilities have been completed. The swings have been a great success with the children.

·        Creation of a family barbecue area, public toilets and a wetlands area near the proposed car park; The family BBQ area is planned for 2001. The Council is hoping to build BBQ shelters and develop the wetland in its reserve in the near future. A public access toilet was included in our new, recently completed toilet block.

·        Preservation and extension of the remnant Eucalyptus ovata bush land reserve area as well as bird-watching, flora and fauna projects; We are an Adopt A Patch school and have carried out extensive work in 'Our Patch'. Students have completed work in weed control, developed power point presentations on Our Patch (and the general grounds developments) and utilised the bushland in many aspects of the curriculum.

·        Community gardens; A community vegetable garden was established in third term 1999. Classes, as well as community members have access to their own vegetable garden beds. The garden coordinator is David Stephens.

·        A native tree arboretum. National Heritage Trust funding was received to allow the development of a native tree arboretum on 1 hectare of school land. We have developed a partnership with the University of Tasmania to develop an arboretum of all 29 Tasmanian eucalypt species.

 Community sport club facilities including:

·        A tennis court complex and clubhouse, hard-court ball game areas, cricket net redevelopment, net ball courts; soccer ground; The local soccer club has developed a facility on school land. No progress on locating a tennis club on school land as yet. Through a minor works program, we have been able to incorporate a secure, after hours access to our GP room facility which we hope will be available to community users from 2001.

 Community use sports facilities including:

·        Multi-use courts; volleyball courts; kick-squash pit; hitting walls; Hard courts, hitting walls and two half court basketball/netball facilities are planned for term one 2001.

·        New basketball key areas;  See above

·        A community Go-Go Golf course (a modified golf game with a soft rubber ball);  Completed

 Art and culture projects including:

·        Sculptures; carved wooden seats; murals; totem poles; musical sculptures; tiles for the recreation trail; Three carved animal sculptures have been completed. An additional two animal sculptures are in commission at the moment as are two totem poles to highlight the main entrance to the school

 Further concepts being explored include the establishment of:

·        A community library, integrated within the school library;

·        A multi-use childcare, parenting programs centre;

·        A community health service centre;

·        A community internet access centre;

·        A creative arts centre, artists in residence program and an outdoor theatre;
These projects represent the next phase of development. Our focus up to now has been the development of the site as a community recreation facility. We are working with several partners to extend this use to the service facilities listed above. We have been identified as target school in the Glenorchy-State Government partnership agreement for the development of community facilities. We are constructing a community meeting room as part of the after hours access to school facilities program.

 The whole program is based on a philosophy of schools being an integral part of the whole community, contributing to an enhanced quality of life and the development of positive relationships for all, not just for those families with children at the school and not just during school hours.

Bob Phillips 

Principal