Canberra’s newest and 91st public school, Shirley Smith High School, in the suburb of Kenny, opens its doors today.
While its first cohort of students are in Year 7, the school will eventually cater for up to 800 Year 7-10 students in East Gungahlin.
The all-electric school is made from sustainable materials, and has air permeability membranes and a solar power generation system. It has a double gymnasium with basketball, netball, futsal, and volleyball markings; a covered hard court suitable for basketball and netball; and an oval for soccer, rugby union, and rugby league. The community can use the hall.
Cancer treatment
The Canberra Region Cancer Centre has a new radiotherapy machine: a Linear Accelerator (LINAC), which targets tiny tumours with minimal impact on surrounding healthy tissue.
This is the fourth and final LINAC to be installed at the Canberra Hospital as part of a replacement program. The Commonwealth Government provided $12 million, and the ACT Government $6.4 million.
“For some patients, these new LINACs will mean shorter treatment courses as larger doses can be delivered in a safer, more precise way,” health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said. “This has the potential to improve wait times, with more patients being treated in a shorter timeframe.”
A cancer research centre, announced last January, is being built in the CRCC, while Canberra Hospital’s Critical Services Building, the centrepiece of the Canberra Hospital expansion, will open later this year.
CIT
The ACT Government will spend $8 million on more fit-out components and equipment at the new CIT Campus in Woden, which will open next year.
This will include augmented hearing systems, camera tracking capability, video conferencing equipment, LED wall displays, smart screens, microphones, amplifiers and speakers, modern commercial workstations, appliances, a demountable stage, and creative art equipment.
The government says the campus will be Canberra’s largest new education facility enabled by smart technology.
The ACT Government wants the Commonwealth to establish a centre of excellence at CIT Fyshwick, under the National Skills Agreement struck last year.
The proposed centre would expand CIT’s Electric Vehicle Training Centre (opened in 2022) to train more EV automotive technicians and support the electrification of the economy.
A Future Energy Skills Hub at CIT would incorporate the centre of excellence, and train more students in electrotechnology.
The ACT needs at least 1,280 additional electricians and 270 more electrical engineers before 2045 to meet growing demand, ACT Government modelling has found.
