Sod finally turned on school site

AMBERLEY State School students and their parents snatched a glimpse of their new school site at Yamanto last Friday when the official sod-turning took place.

The school's P&C and supporters secured $26.8 million from the Federal Government to build the new school, which will replace Amberley's primary school when it closes at the end of this year to make way for the RAAF Amberley Base expansion.

Amberley P&C president Yvette Wright said she had been invited to the sod-turning the night before the ceremony.

“We had already arranged to have a celebration with the children. It is a hard-hat area and not a place we can take the children,” she said.

“We're just happy to see the site's moving ahead.

“We've got 230 children who'll come across to this site, and there's a capacity for 570.

“The school raised that money (to build the new school).

“We wanted our children and their friendships and relationships, and the culture of a 145-year-old school to survive.”

One parent outside the boundary fence complained that Amberley parents and students had been “locked out” of the sod-turning, a positive PR exercise.

Ms Nolan said it was “untrue” to claim that people had been excluded from the sod-turning ceremony.

“It is absolutely normal practice for a sod-turning to be a small private event,” she said.

“This is a work site - kids should be in school, not wandering around in an active construction site. It's not a place for children.

“It was never intended that this sod-turning would ever be a community event. Indeed sod-turnings never are.”

Ms Nolan said the Yamanto school on Deebing Creek Road would be open for the start of the 2010 term.

She reiterated that the school site - criticised for its flooding and traffic problems - was right.

“We chose this site because the majority of the existing Amberley school community live closer to here than they do to Willowbank, and because this is a growing community,” she said.

“The State Government has obviously taken some heat around that, but I am utterly confident that we are building a school which will be most convenient for the majority of the existing school community, and which will be a world-class facility.

“Some water flows over this site so it's been necessary to design a drain to flow that water around the site.

“The traffic issue is being dealt with.” An announcement on the name of the new school is expected this week.