A new private school in the Molonglo Valley will be one of the tallest and greenest schools in Canberra.
Stromlo Forest Anglican College in Wright will host up to 1858 students from early learning through to year 12 across five buildings.
Colliers associate director Craig Dent said the community would have a chance to provide feedback on the campus design before the development application is submitted at the end of September.
"We've gone out to a pretty diverse range of community groups, everyone from sporting clubs, to music groups, to community gardeners, and the like," Mr Dent said.
"They're all looking at their design of the school and the spaces that they're likely to use. We've had a pretty good cross section of feedback and commentary so far."
A single-storey building for the early learning centre and four kindergarten classrooms is set to open for the 2026 school year.
This will be followed by a four-storey junior school for years 1 to 6 in 2027, a five-storey senior school for years 7 to 9 in 2028 and a four-storey college for years 10 to 12 in 2029.
A single-storey gymnasium will be open by 2030.
Mr Dent said the vertical design made the best use of the 56,000 square metre site, which had about 20 metres of elevation change.
"We're on a relatively small block compared to a lot of the other schools, particularly within the Anglican diocese portfolio. So we've had to find a different way to build the school to be able to have the number of students that we're aiming for within the development," he said.
The campus will have a community garden and facilities that can be hired by community groups outside school hours, including the gym, hard courts, cricket nets and music rooms.
The school buildings will look out to a large, AFL-sized oval adjacent to John Gorton Drive.
"Each of those schools and cohorts have their own play space located in different areas around that common oval," Mr Dent said.
"The diocese may be looking at ways to schedule lunch times and breaks so that there's not that great crossover between the big kids in year 12 wanting to play in the same oval as the junior kids. But that's something that we'll get to once we start really starting the planning of the operations of the school."
The school is targeting a net zero energy certification through the International Living Future Institute.
"We'll be generating as much energy throughout the course of the year as the school will use in that time. So we see that as kind of being on the forefront of sustainability, particularly for a school on campus, the size of what we're looking to develop," Mr Dent said.
"Pretty well every part of the roof will be covered in solar panels. We're working through some engineering modelling of energy use through the school to figure out exactly what that area is going to be."
The campus will have 265 car parks on site.
Mr Dent said Transport Canberra and City Services had given in-principle approval to reopen old Uriarra Road.
Parents will be able to enter the school from Opperman Avenue, drive through a two-lane, one-way street through the school, Admiral Place, to drop off their children. They'll then be able to exit the campus on Uriarra Road.
Assessment of the development application is likely to take 12 months. Construction of the early learning centre could start from late October, 2024.
The diocese is going through the school registration process with the Education Directorate and will able to take enrolments once that is complete.
Pre-development application community consultation will close on Friday, September 15.
Three pop-up sessions are scheduled:
- Thursday 31st August 2023 at Cooleman Court from 3:00pm to 4:30pm
- Wednesday 6th September 2023 at Denman Prospect Shops from 3:00pm to 4:30pm
- Thursday 7th September 2023 from 5:00pm to 6:00pm via Teams (email belen.barcenillacoll@colliers.com to register)
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