The Athena School is located on the heritage premises of what used to be St Joseph’s Primary School and Convent. The beautiful grounds with their huge camphor laurel and eucalyptus trees provide an aesthetic and naturally shaded environment for the students to work and play in. These trees harbour flocks of lorikeets, wattle birds and magpies and provide a home for our transient possums, adopted from WIRES.
Our classrooms are large and airy, with plenty of space to display artwork and projects. Attention is given to classroom layout to ensure optimum learning environment.
We have two fully-networked computer labs, which have access to the Internet and, of course, appropriate content filtering. This is maintained by the onsite IT Technician. We are looking forward to the delivery of laptops for the Year 9 students.
In order to enhance the facilities we have here, we make regular excursions to libraries, local parks, ovals, the beach, snow fields, ice skating rinks, gyms, indoor centres and swimming pools, using our two school buses.
Our past students often come to coach sports and give talks.
We especially encourage participation in community activities, such as Tree Planting Day and Clean Up Australia Day, and inter-school competitions, such as the Marrickville Indoor Soccer Tournament and the Touch Football Gala Day.
Renovations have been a major emphasis since our arrival here in 2000. The recent funding from Mr Rudd’s Government has given a welcome boost and we have just completed renovating the amenities block, much to the pleasure of the students. We have used power and water saving fixtures to make this as environmentally sustainable as possible.
The next renovations phase is to restore and refurbish the classrooms facing Baltic Street and build a new library facility. 2010 will see resurfacing of the playground and improvement of our entrances. By 2011 our much enhanced school will be enjoyed by students, parents, staff and visitors alike.
