The entire main building of the school was lost, including nine classrooms, the library, art room, music room, administration block and staff room.
“We want the community to know we’re doing well and working hard to be the normal Puckapunyal Primary School again,” principal Kevin Warne said.
“On behalf of the school, I want to thank the wider community for their continued support. It has been amazing.
“Every day a different family is bringing something in, from books, new tools, buckets and ladders and all the little things we need that we’ve lost in the fires.
“We get emails and phone calls regularly from people outside the community wanting to donate something to our school.”
The school's 25 staff and 250 students are currently working from 10 new portable buildings, dubbed ‘Pucka Village’.
Mr Warne said he was impressed with the “spacious and very modern portables” that only took four weeks to build.
“Regrouping since the fire has been challenging because of the loss of resources. In the library alone, we estimate we have lost more than $400,000 worth of catalogued reading material,” he said.
“We’ve been able to replace most of the furniture already and we are now working towards relacing laptops, iPads, touchscreens and literacy and numeracy resources.”
Mr Warne said the commitment of staff had been a tremendous help in getting the school back on its feet.
“Even though our staff have had many challenges during the past 12 months, they are working incredibly well,” he said.
“Just before the five-day lockdown and with only an hours’ notice, all students went home with work packs ready for remote learning.
“Even though we don’t yet have the technology to provide online opportunities for the students, they just cracked into action and provided the next best thing.
“We don’t know for sure, but most likely we will be in the portables for the next two years or so. Very soon the process of engaging the community to contribute to discussing the needs of the rebuild will begin.”
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