For many parents a school’s facilities are not usually the highest priority when choosing a school but multiple studies indicate the quality of a school’s physical resources can play a major role in contributing to student success. Facilities can affect health, behaviour, engagement, learning and growth. Emmanuel’s building Master Plan is the framework for the ongoing updating of facilities based on achieving the best educational outcomes.
Take a glimpse into the grounds and facilities of Emmanuel College and our local Warrnambool area in this short video filmed from above.
Emmanuel students learn across three campuses, which are within short walking distance from each other. While the Emmanuel College student population has grown in recent years, distinct learning areas for the Junior School, Year 9 and the Senior School ensures that the College is able to retain its valued small-school atmosphere.
Located on the western side of the McAuley Campus is the Goold Centre, which is home to the Junior school - our Year 7 and 8 students.
The Rice Campus on Canterbury Road is home to our new Year 9 program - 9@RICE.
Year 10 to 12 students in vertical, house-based groups form the Senior school. This fosters adult interaction between staff and students, helping to prepare senior students to make the transition from the school environment to the adult world of tertiary education and the workforce. Senior students are based at the McAuley campus in Botanic Road.
Consolidation of the campuses onto a single site on Botanic Road is planned for 2025, following the completion of the new Edmund Rice Centre, a stand-alone Year 9 precinct.
The Goold Centre, located on the Hopetoun Road side of the McAuley Campus, is a Learning Centre for Years 7 and 8 only. Although Emmanuel is a large school with all of the choices that a large school brings, with a dedicated junior learning centre it is possible to maintain that small school feel that eases the transition from a small primary school to a larger learning environment.
Year 7 and 8 students have their own place within our community and their own specific outdoor play areas, with: handball courts, outdoor table tennis tables, a range of supersized outdoor games, basketball courts and a Challenger Course.
At the heart of Emmanuel College is the Emmanuel Centre, the South-West region's largest venue with an auditorium that seats 1,500. This is the venue for whole school assemblies and the place where significant College events, including graduations and awards evenings, take place.
The STAGE (Student Theatre for Arts and Growth and Emmanuel) is a dedicated, first-class performing arts space. The facilities within The STAGE include: The Wyton Theatre - a 250 seat theatre with tiered seating, professional standard recording studio, band rehearsal areas, studios for individual and small group tuition and a dance studio. The STAGE complements a learning program that welcomes students who are passionate about the performing arts.
Beneath the Auditorium of the Emmanuel Centre is the Thomas O’Toole Foundation Industrial Skills Centre. The facility replicates a real-life industry environment and contains facilities for technology and design studies working with wood, metal, plastics and building industry skills. This facility is an important component in ensuring students have access to high quality, relevant education and training opportunities that continue to engage them and encourage them to complete their studies. The Industrial Skills Centre assists Emmanuel College to continue to make a valuable contribution in collaboration with industry and the local community, equipping young people with the skills and knowledge that support life‐long learning.
With this state-of-the-art complex and all of the equipment, technology and cross-discipline learning it provides, when a student comes to me now and says, ‘I’d like to be a motor mechanic,” now I can say, ‘That’s great, but have you thought about becoming a car designer?’ The willingness of the College to invest in and incorporate technology across the curriculum makes a statement about our commitment to innovation, creativity and preparing our students for the careers of the future.Ben McKenzie | Design Technology Coordinator
A new Science precinct at McAuley Campus provides six laboratories, four classrooms and flexible learning and gathering spaces including a new environment for the completion of senior school examinations. The area below the Science Centre has also been expanded to provide a gathering space with tiered seating, cafe-style seating and study booths for those who prefer to study or collaborate in a less quiet environment than the Library.
In 2021, an expanded and redeveloped Library opened with multi-zoned, multi-purpose learning areas catering for individual learners and groups for independent and collaborative work. Renowned Library Consultant, Kevin Hennah, worked with the College to develop a vision of how space, technology and the library collection may evolve and maintain relevance in the twenty-first century.
