New basketball court nears completion
A new basketball court at Umina Beach Public School should be ready for use this week.
"The new surface should be poured and should be ready to play on by the end of the week," said principal Ms Karen Wardlaw.
"The final painting will be completed in the holidays, ready for term three.
"We look forward to welcoming back some of our 2022 school leaders who initiated this project last year.
"The basketball area was not only too small, but the surface was uneven and dangerous.
"This was raised by our school leaders who requested a meeting to ask for the basketball court to be resurfaced."
Ms Wardlaw said the suggestion was made to extend the court so that it met official regulation size, so the school could host PSSA basketball games.
"This was taken by the school leaders to a sitting of our school parliament, where it was debated by our Year 6 students, with great arguments presented for and against until the final vote was taken, in support of the extension proposal.
"It's taken a little time to organise planning through the department's assets team, but we're almost at the final stage.
"This is a great example of student initiative, student voice and student democracy.
"I'm very proud of all our students who participated in this process.
"They should feel very proud of the result."
Ms Wardlaw said a number of important upgrades wereplanned for the school over the next six months.
These included updates to the office entry and canteen to ensure safe access, and re-surfacing the Cola to reduce the possibility of trips and falls due to uneven surfaces.
A new outdoor meeting space was planned, with an outdoor barbecue area provided by the school's P/C association.
"We plan to look at reviewing our play spaces, providing all students with the chance to tell us what they'd like to see in the playground and oval areas...
"I'm anticipating there may be a lot of interest in a dedicated soccer area with soccer goals.
"We've got lots of plans in place to help rejuvenate our shared areas with additional seating, eating areas and appealing play spaces.
"We know that our outdoor spaces are an important part of our school, and we want to ensure they are safe, well-planned and allow for positive, purposeful play for all our students."
SOURCE:
Newsletter, 23 Jun 2023
Karen Wardlaw, Umina Beach Public School