There have been some exciting changes made around Penola High School and there will be more happening in the coming months.

Business Manager Vicki McDonald-Burgess said the school received funding which was used to re-paint the front of the school and revamp the old Penola Community Library signage.

The groundsman, an SSO and a group of students sanded and re-painted the letters, which Ms McDonald-Burgess said looked much more appealing.

There will also be a ‘public entrance’ to the library installed with an automatic sliding door.

However, this will not occur until March or April due to COVID and the availability of resources and materials.

During the school holidays, the art room entrance quadrangle was repaved and the art shed on the end of the building received new guttering and the external doors were repaired.

Ms McDonald-Burgess said there was a vision impaired student enrolled at Penola High School this year, so they applied yellow paint on steps, hand rails and posts to increase visibility.

“They will act like little beacons, so that helps them to navigate their way around the school,” she said.

Ms McDonald-Burgess said they will also re-plant out the front of the school and had purchased some garden beds to be installed along the side of the school entrance.

And finally, a revamp in the downstairs corridor will see the bottom three classrooms re-designed into open learning areas, which will involve removing walls, re-painting and re-carpeting.

“It’s just about opening up our classrooms so kids can have breakout spaces and more open learning areas, which is suited to twenty-first century teaching,” Ms McDonald-Burgess said.

Ms McDonald-Burgess said this major project was due to start mid-February and had been a ‘long-time coming’ due the availability of trade and materials.

Ms McDonald-Burgess said it was all a work in progress but they were getting there.

“Hopefully the kids will embrace the changes and appreciate and like the new look,” she said.