Adventure Playground

I am very pleased announce that the contract for the construction of our new adventure playground has been signed, and work will be completed on this over the summer holidays. The final cost of $555,600 is less than original estimates, mostly because we have been able to negotiate better prices for the preparation work and soft landing areas. The playground will be funded through a PTA donation of $450,000, a donation of $50,000 from the Hwang Family, with the remaining money coming from the College's capital funds.

This facility will make a remarkable difference for students, particularly in the primary school, and I need to acknowledge and thank the PTA for their tireless fund raining and of course the Hwang family for helping to make this dream a reality. A final concept drawing of the playground is below.

Bouldering wall

We set money aside this year to construct a bouldering wall in the College. This is a horizontal climbing wall no higher than about 2.5 metres. Our original budget proved to be too small to build anything substantial, however, the final cost of the adventure playground has been less than anticipated and this has allowed us to re-allocate some of the money towards this project. We expect to sign a contract with the successful tender within the next week, allowing this faciltiy to be constructed along the gymnasium viewing gallery over the summer holidays.

6/F roof

In line with the great news around the adventure playground and bouldering wall, I'm delighted to announce that ESF has allocated the estimated $6,000,000 into our 2010-11 budget in order for us to convert the 6/F roof into a secure sports pitch. Assuming there are no unforeseen difficulties, we expect that this facility will be completed by the start of Term 2 (January 2011).

Scholarship fund

For the past two years DC has been working on the understanding that scholarship fund (which accounts for 10% of our total revenue) has to be used for individual scholarship students. This has seriously impacted on our College finances as attracting appropriate scholarship students has been difficult (3 in 2009-10) and our fund has steadily increased in value to where it is currently over $12.5 million.

Last month the College wrote a proposal whereby some of the fund could be used to pay for a range of initiatives in the college that would have benefit to all students. This was endorsed by the School Council and approved by the ESL Directors. For next year, this will mean money to provide for extra Learning Support teachers and EAs (including provision for Gifted and Talented students), Technicians for Visual Art, Music and PE, and specialized coaching for College sports teams. We have also budgeted over $300,000 of this money to allow for the daily hire of the new DB Sport Pitch for our PE and sports programmes.

Mark Beach
Principal