Perth Voice Interactive

ON Monday February 2, hundreds of local children will bustle for the first time into the rebuilt Mt Lawley Primary School.

Principal Don Barber says the new $11.2 million school is state-of-the-art, with reverse-cycle air conditioning in every classroom.

“We’re on track and raring to go,” he says.

“We’ve got a new undercover area in the playground which gives us more flexibility and protection from the sun.”

The original 100-year-old school burned to the ground in July 2012 and the teenage arsonists were sentenced to eight months’ gaol.

Fierce lobbying from the Mount Lawley Society and hundreds of locals ensured the Second Avenue brick facade was retained, a poke in the eye for bean counters who’d said the most “cost-effective” option would be to flatten it. “The façade on Second Avenue looks fantastic and once again contributes positively to the beautiful character streetscape,” society president Paul Hurst says.

Mt Lawley Liberal MP Michael Sutherland says a more efficient placement of buildings has increased the size of the playground.

“It looks fantastic—this is a great outcome from a very bad situation,” he says.

The two-storey school includes 12 classrooms, a dental therapy unit, a refurbished library and hard courts.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK