Finigan School of Distance Education

Finigan School of Distance Education—located in Queanbeyan—provides state-of-the-art facilities for approximately 120 teaching and support staff serving 1000 students.

The school has purpose-designed spaces to facilitate distance education as well as in-person ‘mini-schools’. A range of highly flexible information-technology-rich teaching spaces allow lessons to be recorded and delivered both remotely and in-person. These include interactive booths, special program rooms for science, applied studies and the arts, a kitchen for food technology, a performance space of terraced seating within the double height foyer, and a spacious covered outdoor learning space opening onto a shaded courtyard/garden. Digital facilities include twenty web lesson studios, a satellite lesson studio and two video production studios.

Location: Ngambri, Ngunuwal Country
Queanbeyan, New South Wales
Client: NSW Department of Education, Schools Infrastructure NSW
Value: $14M
Year: 2020
Collaborators: Robert Thorpe Architects
Project Contact: Richard Does
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While the delivery of curricula embraces modern digital technologies, these are balanced with the use of hands-on activity kits and ‘hard copy’ media. This is a complex operation undertaken by a dedicated registry team. The building is configured to deliver a seamless registry operation with efficient delivery and dispatch to carriers, distribution and collection from teachers, and a rigorous maintenance of records.

Collaboration is fostered through a variety of spaces such as open plan areas, enclosed meeting rooms and flexible learning areas that are all enabled with tele-conferencing and digital communications.

A broad high-level louvered canopy shades the northern building façade and courtyard from summer sun, extending the time the court can be used for mini-school activities and by the staff as an outdoor meeting place in the warmer months.