By Parker McKenzie
Berwick Lodge Primary School received “substantial” damage after Friday’s wild storms according to the school’s principal, who bemoaned the schools misfortune as of late.
Principal Henry Grossek said the main corridor of the school building is unusable after it was damaged by strong winds on 29 October.
“The skylight flew off the roof into Collin’s Crescent,” Mr Grossek said.
“We lost about 100 metres of skylight all up, with damage to the fittings and the roof as well as water damage to the carpet.”
Classes were cancelled after the main building at Berwick Lodge was damaged at 8am, with the school posting on its Facebook page on 29 October that “There is no power and we believe it is an unsafe environment for students to be in” and “we have no other means of communication at this time”.
The school was forced to close for a week after returning to the classroom after a wave of Covid cases led to over 100 students and 37 out of 55 teachers at the school being told to isolate as primary contacts.
With the damage to the building falling on World Teachers’ Day, Mr Grossek said the school has suffered from an unfortunate number of events since returning to in person learning.
“We’ve been closed for six days out of 10 after having 19 Covid cases,” he said.
“We had to send students home once they arrived on Friday because we had very little way to communicate without power.”
Mr Grossek is hoping students will be able to return to class without incident after the Melbourne Cup weekend.
“Fortunately we have a curriculum day today otherwise we wouldn’t be having classes,” he said.
“Students should be fine to return on Wednesday after the public holiday.”
Worksafe is currently completing repairs to the school including temporarily covering the damaged skylight to reduce further damage to the building.
