News Feed

Brisbane Grammar School is excited to announce that the most significant infrastructure project in the School’s 153-year history will commence in the coming weeks.

After seven years of planning, design and research, the School has partnered with Watpac Constructions to build the STEAM Precinct. Watpac will commence the 18-month build at the end of Term 1 2021. Read on to learn how our students will benefit from a transformed school environment that will confirm BGS as the best school for boys in Australia.

 

The construction site for STEAM will be established and temporary classrooms ready for BGS boys in April 2021.

Demolition of four existing buildings on the site, and foundations for the new building, will be completed in May 2021.

The STEAM Precinct will open early in 2023.

STEAM information evenings for the BGS community will occur throughout April 2021.

The acronym STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics – refers not just to these standalone disciplines but to a way of thinking.

STEAM education instructs students in critical thinking and shifts the STEM concept into the contemporary world of innovation and entrepreneurship. Instead of teaching subjects in isolation, STEAM disciplines can be taught in a way that combines scientific inquiry with technological implementation, engaging the problem solving of engineering, the creativity of art, and mathematical modelling to support student comprehension and understanding of the real world.

The STEAM Precinct will be a physical extension of the BGS educational philosophy – to develop critical, reflective, and creative thinkers with the capacity and enthusiasm for independent, lifelong learning.

The STEAM Precinct will provide:

• Hands-on learning opportunities – from artistic and technological exploration to designing, prototyping, 3D printing, and dissections.
• A world-class environment which will closely resemble the modern, dynamic, professional, and collaborative spaces that BGS graduates will encounter at university and in industry.
• A lively corridor, connecting the north-west corner to the heart of the School while leaving heritage buildings undisturbed.
• Green initiatives, which will provide a living laboratory, harvesting energy through solar cells; and a weather station, and energy and water usage meters visible to students for real-time monitoring.
• A grand space for embracing the BGS community – parents, Old Boys, and industry. It will be a space where we can gather for educational and social events.

The contemporary spaces in the STEAM Precinct include:

• Environments to optimise teaching and learning and enact the principles of Brisbane Grammar School’s Effective Thinking Cultures pedagogy.
• Co-laboratories created for the sciences that will maximise time on tasks and enable students to transition seamlessly between theoretical and practical ways of learning.
• Design and art spaces that will challenge students to think and work creatively and flexibly and generate innovative solutions to problems.
• Mathematical and maker spaces that will provide students with opportunities to develop and practice logical and abstract thinking.
• A substantial incubator space that will provide an innovation hub for student ideas and inventions and host displays, exhibitions, educational conferences, and community events.

STEAM is the School’s most substantial project in its 153-year history. When the development is complete, the BGS community will be the beneficiaries of this extraordinary educational venture.

Click here to learn more about the STEAM Precinct.