The Armidale Secondary College opened with fanfare more than a week ago, but because of COVID-19 restrictions, not many people other than teachers and students have been able to go inside.
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School principal Caz Lasker took The Armidale Express on a tour recently to give us an idea of the kind of state-of-the-art education facility a $121 million budget can buy.
In our first instalment we took a tour of the year 12 neighbourhood (one of six neighbourhoods in the school) with sport captain Tanaka Marume while Ms Lasker took us through the outside layout.
The new school is comprised of 79 new classrooms, specialised spaces for science, industrial arts and hospitality and sports facilities and covered connections between indoor and outdoor learning.
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After our first video tour we received questions from viewers asking why there were no lockers at the new facility. Ms Lasker responded that lockers have been getting phased out of school builds for a number of years.
"It's a significant change that has happened over the past decade," Ms Lasker said.
"It used to be the standard for individual lockers to be provided for every student. Now the standard is no lockers, or at most, just a few."
High school students tend to want everything they own with them all of the time Ms Lasker said.
"Lockers are also becoming obsolete as more classes offer online texts and online learning platforms that do not require textbooks."
In the two videos below we take a look at the canteen outdoor dining area and the new agriculture centre, which has a strong focus on technology with wireless sensors throughout, with Ms Lasker and school captain Emilie Gates.
The agriculture building is also connected to a centralised computer for students to analyse data across agriculture, primary industry and animal husbandry.
Ag students are able to measure and analyse moisture, feed and temperature data and learn about the latest animal husbandry methods.
The high-tech facility also includes cropping facilities, livestock, machinery and a permaculture area.
It will still be some time before parents and the general public can tour the new $121 million facility.
"Fairly soon we will have parents through in the evening," Ms Laser said.
"At the moment, COVID-19 restrictions allow us to only have a maximum of 100 people onsite outside for a maximum of one hour.
"So we will have Year 7 and Year 12 parents through the school in week four, then Year 8,9, 10 and 11 parents in the following weeks.
"The wider community will be after that, but with only 100 people allowed, it makes it very hard, so we are hoping the COVID restrictions will be eased soon."