Sidrah Gardens School

Project: Sidrah Gardens School

Client: Abdulhai Family

Category: Education

Time: 2021 - Current

A "forest-based" primary school on a 20 acre site that used to be the Campbelltown Miniature Railway.

This project presented many opportunities generated from the site itself – heavily forested, with a creek running through the middle, a network of miniature train tracks that traverse the entire site and an educational philosophy that embraces the natural environment as the "third teacher".

After a lengthy and detailed planning application process, Stage 1 – the remodelling of the existing house into two classrooms and support spaces, was completed in time for the school to commence in 2022.

Stage 2 - a self-contained Double Classroom Pod is almost ready to go to tender. Other buildings will follow; administration, living library, more classroom pods, a makers' workshop, multipurpose hall, and chapel.

All of which are integrated with the natural context of the site that also includes, tending to livestock, cultivating gardens, regenerating the waterways and inculcating a respect and appreciation for the land as God's Creation.

Opportunities abound to expand the educational experience at the school by looking outwards towards the wider community, these will be explored in time as the school develops its presence.