As one of the leading independent schools for girls, Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne (PLC) has a long and proud history of providing the highest standards for learning success and graduate outcomes for girls.
In recent years this learning focus has been complimented by the College Council’s vision to transform PLC’s classroom and co-curricular facilities through a historic redevelopment of the campus.
With the College’s rapid rise in student enrolments, the school has also had to be highly adaptable in supporting its future classroom requirements. When this strong market demand required clever new solutions, they turned to Harwyn.
The following outlines how Harwyn helped the College develop new prefabricated classroom spaces to be built off site and installed for their growing school. Thank you to their Business Manager Hamish Blair, for outlining their experience for us.
When you approached Harwyn, what were you looking for?
We were looking to compliment the transformation of our Senior School facilities by adding new external classrooms. We looked at a wide range of options, eventually settling on pods as being the most adaptive to our needs.
However, the standard for these new prefabricated classrooms had to be extremely high. We wanted the highest quality and durability possible but with an aesthetic that would also complement our existing landscape and architecture. We met with Harwyn and were delighted with their product.
How was the process of working with Harwyn?
Harwyn were outstanding in tailoring their product to our needs. They nurtured us through the development process and helped make it timely, efficient and extremely easy.
The founder and owner (Jason), was outstanding and was intimately involved in the project from commissioning to completion. His insights into location and sympathetic placement within our landscape was key to the relationship.
He was also instrumental in ensuring that brand and intuitive design were key features and matched the College’s overall learning environment and philosophy. His aim was to ensure these pods felt like every other PLC space on the campus and were a natural enhancement of our classroom learning facilities, not merely an addition.
How about the tools teachers rely on? Were they easy to integrate?
It was pretty seamless. Our team was able to work with Harwyn prior to installation to embed the College’s learning technology into each pod. This included our PA systems and wireless access points, as well as data projectors and document cameras.
We also installed whiteboards and pinboards to ensure teachers could give their traditional ‘stand and deliver’ pedagogy and meet the requirements for group collaboration and student involvement.
In all, each pod had everything artfully integrated for teacher’s and student’s use from day one.
Sounds like there was quite a bit involved. Are you glad you went with Harwyn in the end?
Absolutely. We couldn’t be happier with the quality, location and fit-out of the pods. The view from the windows is stunning. I could happily move my office down there!
Whilst the pods will never look exactly like the adjacent buildings, spanning as they do multiple eras, they look and feel permanent and an extension of our architecturally designed campus structures.
As soon as the girls step through a pod’s door, they feel like they’re in any other classroom at PLC. It’s as if the Harwyn prefabricated classrooms were here all along.
And what about the students? Do they like the spaces?
The students have adapted to the pods just as easily as the teachers and it hasn’t impacted on their learning outcomes.
See more photos from this project HERE.
Does your school also have a space challenge? Harwyn is here to help. We deliver sleek,
contemporary spaces for schools that eliminate distractions and enhance student learning. To
learn more or to get a custom quote, call 1300 HARWYN (1300 427 996) or enquire now.