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Business case leadership and strategic advice for Richmond High School, NSW

Schools Infrastructure NSW

Business case leadership and strategic advice for Richmond High School, NSW
Client:
School Infrastructure NSW
Years of Service:
2019
Services Provided:
  • strategy & policy
  • project definition & planning
  • option development & assessment
  • stakeholder engagement

School Infrastructure NSW is responsible for delivering new school buildings, major upgrades and maintenance strategies that will ensure every school-aged child has access to high quality education facilities at their local public school.

ConnellGriffin was appointed to developed strategic and final business cases for four high profile infrastructure planning projects.

CLIENT'S OBJECTIVES:

School Infrastructure NSW sought to investigate and evaluate the opportunities, costs and benefits of investing in world class, contemporary agricultural education for students across NSW. ConnellGriffin was appointed as Senior Project Director for the following infrastructure planning projects:

  • Hurlstone Agricultural High School
  • The Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Education
  • Richmond High School, and
  • Yanco Agricultural High School.

OUR ROLE:

ConnellGriffin was appointed to lead a multi-disciplinary team of educational experts and specialist consultants for the development strategic and final business cases for submission to NSW Treasury. The work involves significant interface management of multiple stakeholders within the Department of Education, school community and state government, and requires strict application ofproject governance to control project scope and to deliver within the project budgets and timeframes.

The project is well on its way to delivering a new model of agricultural education that will benefit students and teaching professionals across NSW.

Our advisors have so far delivered:

  • effective leadership and overall accountability for each business case
  • strong project governance and assurance processes
  • timely executive and Ministerial approvals
  • assessments of asset utilisation and condition
  • successful stakeholder management and community consultation activities, and
  • rapid resolved complex stakeholder, technical and issues.

KEY ISSUES:

All four projects are highly contentious locally and have attracted media coverage, negative community sentiment and Ministerial announcements. Each project involves complex stakeholder management issues, collaboration across multiple state government agencies and the management of multi-disciplinary project teams to deliver final business cases within set budgets and timeframes.

FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT OUR INVOLVEMENT:

Richmond High School

Richmond High School (RHS) is located within the Hawkesbury and is currently operating with surplus capacity. Schools with a large site size and small enrolment number, represent poor utilisation of government assets. RHS will introduce a selective entry stream, managed by the High Performance Unit, and an agricultural (Ag) selective stream, managed through a portfolio application and interview process to increase enrolments and asset utilisation.

Delivering new selective education streams and upgrades at RHS will drive a larger school population with better equipped facilities, avoiding the need for a separate selective secondary school in the region and may lead to lower whole of life costs across the asset portfolio. Capital investment is focused on upgrades to existing AgSTEM facilities and the delivery of a new dedicated AgSTEM building.

It will also improve educational outcomes and provide the school with the opportunity to deliver more courses and services to students.

CG Team Members Involved:

Mark Harrison Mark Harrison Director

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