The school has been successful in obtaining the funds via the state non-government school's capital fund.
Principal Trish Merlo said the applications was put in at the start of the year and the whole-school community was excited to see work get under way.
“It was just announced, we got the news on Tuesday last week,” Ms Merlo said.
Day Trips: One thing leads to another
“The grant is for refurbishment and improvement of the existing learning spaces to the value of $2 million.”
Work is set to begins shortly with the project due for completion within 12 months.
“Hopefully by this time next year it will be in use already,” she said.
“We have plans that have been designed by E+ architects in Bendigo.
St Joey’s gets top certification
“We are really happy with what they have come up with.
“It will actually add to our learning spaces and has lots of break out areas.
“We’ll have a purpose-built art space as well as a gathering space that students can share.
“And the smaller break out areas will help our kids that might need to do small group work.
St Joey’s carnival keeps kids active
“So they can work in teams and they can work in a whole unit, so all of those fantastic things.
“And it also has a big shaded area at the front, which is just fantastic.”
On top of offering a variety of different learning spaces and modernising the learning experience for students the upgrade will also allow the school to expand.
“We’ll have an extra classroom in each of the unit areas, so it will be five classes for years 3 and 4; and five classes for years 5 and 6,” Ms Merlo said.
Witt St development planning approved
“So we are projecting our numbers will increase over the next few years.”
St Joseph's is one of 17 schools in its diocese that has been given this stimulus funding.
“There were $2 million grants and $5 million grants and we sought the $2m grants to get this done.
“Some of our buildings in that area will stay as they are and there will be an extension joining them together.
*** Grants to help celebrate Children’s Week
“It’s all very exciting, and we are looking forward to being able to get into the news space.”
The state government describes non-government schools as an important part of Victoria's education system, with over one-third of Victorian students studying at Catholic or independent schools.
As part of the non-government school's capital fund it has committed $402 million over the next four years to upgrade and build new Catholic and independent schools across the state.
This funding is allocated over four grant rounds, with about $100 million worth of grants allocated in each round.
If you would like to send a letter to the editor on this, or any subject, click this link