At Frederick Irwin, students can access a wide range of modern learning facilities, specialty classrooms, and resources to enhance their developing skill sets and reach their full potential.
Buildings and Grounds
Department Facilities
Buildings and Grounds
Alongside these facilities, the School also believes that students must also be able to work in different and relaxing environments, and so has created welcoming open grassed areas between buildings and encourage students to utilise these areas during recess, lunch, and occasionally during class time.
- Administration Building – The Administration Building includes a student sick bay, key executive staff offices, administration offices and the staff room. Parents are encouraged to contact Administration for queries regarding student information, reporting absentees and school information.
- Careers and VET Office – Upper Secondary students are supported by the Careers and VET Advisers in areas such as subject and career advice, and interview skills and practice. Students participate in educational incursions and excursions to allow them a greater understanding of the pathways they can take after their final examinations, as well as to hone a range of personal development skills.
- Library and IT Helpdesk – Primary and Secondary students both have access to the central Library, which is located in the Secondary School. A vast collection of books are available, and whole classroom areas are designed for specific age-group use. A dedicated IT Helpdesk is located towards the exit of the Library, with staff and students being able to access IT help at any point across the day, predominantly in regards to BYOD.
- Rush Chapel – The Rush Chapel, completed in July 2016, is a central place of worship and reflection for both current and past students. Seating 320 on the ground level and 50 on the mezzanine floor, the Rush Chapel is spacious and appealing with its simplistic design. The Rush Chapel reflects the simplicity of the first Rush Church, built by Captain Frederick Irwin and his troops in the Swan River Colony; this bush church was called the ‘rush church’, as it was walled with rushes. The Rush Chapel at the School, named in like, has incorporated the same design elements as the Rush Church, with the walls of the Chapel lined with soft printed rushes.
- Year 7 Centre – Opened in February 2014, the Year 7 Centre was built to facilitate a program which enables the smooth transition of students as they begin their secondary schooling. The Centre houses six large classrooms, all equipped with smart technology and a central ‘break out’ area with a projector screen for whole year activities.
Department Facilities
- Visual Arts – The art rooms have been designed to be open, spacious and with much natural light, enabling specific activities such as clay work, computer graphics, pottery and glassware, drawing, painting and printing making.
- Home Economics – This subject area operates in two designated and purpose-built cooking rooms, which have recently been upgraded, and two sewing rooms which accommodate the sewing and fashion classes. Rooms have recently been upgraded with aerial cameras for Masterchef-style viewing.
- Design and Technology – Two designated woodworking rooms, a metalworking room, a timber preparation machine room and a computer laboratory are the facilities available to students for this subject. The two wood rooms each have fully ducted extraction systems and adjoining machine rooms which house machines such as router tables, drop saws, drill presses, sending machines, as well as the general workrooms with workbenches and hand tools where the students organise construction and assembly. The metal working room has a designated fitting and turning room with 10 metal lathes, milling machine and drill presses. Additional specific rooms, such as the spray booth, a designated grinding room and electric welding bays, are all attached to the main general workshop area where students use hand tools for construction and fabrication projects.
- Digital Technologies – This Department has a number of purpose-designed ICT rooms available to deliver the new Digital Technologies curriculum. A myriad of Industry standard software is available to the students to enable them to produce quality work, as well as allowing students access to media, coding, robotics and electronics. Students use Adobe products extensively and are currently using Lego Mindstorm for robotics and Arduino for the control technology aspects of the new curriculum. The Department also houses semi-pro cameras, enabling the upper school ATAR Media, Production and Analysis students, the opportunity to create quality footage for their WACE course production component.
- Gymnasiums, Hard Courts and Playing Fields – The Hard Courts near the Gordon Road entrance allow more students to participate in Hard Court sports. The original Gymnasium is used for health and physical education studies, as well as coaching sports teams before and after school. The Kwobadiny Sports Centre, opened in 2023, hosts the School's presentations and assemblies, as well as Inter-School competitions. The new Sports Centre boasts a work-out space, two classrooms, HPE Teacher office, and storage spaces. The three Ovals on the grounds are used by both Primary and Secondary students. Secondary students have access to the ‘Football Oval’ as well as the Upper Oval. Primary students have access to the Oval directly in front of the Primary School. Both Primary and Secondary students have respective Health and Physical Education Sports Offices.
- Performing Arts Centre (Oakmont Theatre) – The Performing Arts Centre was opened in 2009 and is a modern purpose built facility with a 257 seat capacity, designed as a flexible teaching and performing space. The state of the art Music Keyboard Computer Laboratory is utilised for the teaching of Music Technology, Composition and Keyboard courses, the main drama teaching room also has a stage area with lighting and sound, and a recording studio is linked to the dedicated band room. The Performing Arts Centre also contains a number of Music Tutoring rooms, with a dedicated percussion room and smaller teaching spaces for ensembles and upper school classes. The entrance foyer also has a kitchen and catering facility and has been designed with modern Drama and Music studies in mind.
- Science – Following Western Australia Curriculum programmes delivered in well-equipped laboratories in a dedicated science block, students engage in imaginative and stimulating learning experiences. Students have access to a range of scientific equipment relevant to the subject areas of human biology, biology, chemistry and physics for a hands-on approach to the subject being taught, including 3D printers and a live Biology environment area. A Marine Biology Centre is due to open late 2024.