Upper Yarra Secondary College

<p class="rteBlock">Upper Yarra Secondary College is a government secondary school in Yarra Junction, teaching students from Years 7 to 12. The school places real weight on student wellbeing, academic achievement and community connection, and wanted a facility that reflected that across daily school life. This was the school&#x27;s first project of this scale, so the brief called for a partner able to manage the full scope from design through to a finished structure.</p>

<p class="rteBlock">Upper Yarra needed a durable, low maintenance outdoor facility able to accommodate large groups of students across a working school week. Reliable protection from the weather mattered as much as capacity, since the space needed to function in all conditions, not just on wet days. Safety, longevity and ongoing maintenance were central to the brief throughout, with the school keen to avoid a structure that would demand constant upkeep once it was built.</p>

<p class="rteBlock">Steelcorp delivered the complete design, supply and installation, partnering with builder Jardon Group to bring the project to site. The finished structure is a 30m by 35m gable COLA, covering 1220m² in total, sized to accommodate whole year groups at once.</p><br><p class="rteBlock">Circular hollow section columns removed sharp corners from student areas, a straightforward safety measure in a space used by hundreds of students daily. A 2 metre cantilever extended weather protection well beyond the roofline, and integrated bird netting was installed to stop birds perching within the structure, cutting down on mess and the maintenance that comes with it.</p>

<p class="rteBlock">The school now has a large, permanent outdoor facility usable year round for PE, assemblies, sport and school events, whatever the weather is doing. The extended cantilever adds further protection from sun and rain around the edges of the structure, and the bird netting keeps ongoing cleaning to a minimum, a small detail that adds up over years of use.</p><br><p class="rteBlock">With enrolment growth in mind, the COLA gives the school a flexible asset built to support a wider range of educational, sporting and community activities for years to come. It&#x27;s a facility built for daily use, not just for the occasional wet week.</p>