Some Lismore Schools have been through so much since February 28 2022. Trinity, Richmond River, Lismore South and Blakebrook have all seen students and teachers displaced. All have moved to temporary locations until the longer-term plan is either confirmed or built.

Blakebrook Public School is the school closest to re-opening after its four Captains, Alicia Davison, Ayla Blizard, Darcy Bolt and Massimo Feletti, along with teacher Louise Tate and Relief Principal Alaric Coulter turned the first sod as construction gets underway.

There has been some angst among parents regarding the progress of the new build in 2024, as communication from the NSW Department of Education went deathly quiet. Check that story from September here.

Yesterday, those worries were pushed aside by Alaric Coulter as he looked to the future.

"I know it has been a journey, and I know it has been a couple of years, and I think there has been obviously a bit of movement. But I think looking at the resilience of the kids and the staff have been very powerful. I think moving forward, looking at this aspect of the new build, that's a positive in itself.

"I get there's the emotions of, obviously, everyone with a significant event, but I think we're at that stage now, moving on almost 18 to 24, months, the positives coming out of it. I suppose, there's that context of you don't get rid of emotions, but I think try and look at the positive movement. That's the powerful thing."

Mr Coulter said the students are still being picked up and dropped off at the old Blakebrook site, then bused to Goolmanagar Public School, five minutes down the road. The Department of Education provided demountable buildings for teachers and students to continue their education while plans and designs were finalised so construction could begin.

Teacher Louise Tate has been at Blakebrook Public School for 25 years. She has seen a lot of change and a lot of floods in her time there.

When referring to February 2022, Lousie said, "It was just amazing. I've never seen anything like it. I was Relieving Principal at the time. We've had floods before, which had only come up to about knee-high in one of the classrooms. So, returning and seeing that the flood, in fact, was well over my head in many of the rooms, trying to wrap your head around how much water that actually is, was amazing.

"And the mud and the devastation because we didn't think it was going to come that high. The teachers really did not make any effort to protect anything that they had. So, I had like 22 or 23 year's worth of teaching resources that I'd left in my classroom, and personal resources that were in my classroom that were destroyed during the flood. To this day, I'm still finding things that are missing. And then I have to stop and think, oh, the last time I saw that was actually in the Blakebrook classroom before the flood."

The new build brings a sense of excitement for students and teachers, alike, but there will also be a tinge of sadness as the old wooden buildings, part of Blakebrook's history, will make way for a new more modern look and feel.

"We have had a lot of teachers go through the school, we've had a lot of principals go through the school. So, I feel that part might be missing a little bit, and many of our new families won't get to experience that. For me, I find that a little sad because I've been here for a long time, and I've seen those changes. I've seen the classrooms change colour, after being painted and things like that. And we've had colleagues who have been here and are no longer with us, I don't know how they would have felt by these new changes.

"I'm super happy that we're moving on, but I'm really I've got a tinge of sadness around what we've lost in that process as well."

The past, though, will not be forgotten; it will be remembered in a unique way.

"That's very exciting. I'm part of the Heritage Group, actually, and we've been discussing that. There are big plans to be able to let people learn, the children learn in particular, about the heritage of the site and the history of the site. In the works, there is pretty much a walk around, where the kids will be able to use their phones or our iPads to listen to the history of the school. And there will be pictures there'll be linked to that, which will be really lovely and because that's part of the curriculum too. So, it builds in beautifully with what the kids are doing in their history lessons. That's a super exciting opportunity they've offered us there."

Both Alaric Coulter and Lousie Tate spoke about the student's resilience in the last nearly three years.

"There a great bunch of resilient children and families that we've got here. Of course, going from this wonderful site, which is very large, to a smaller school took a lot of coming to terms with. We had to readjust the way that we teach, the way the classrooms were set up, and things like that. That took a fair bit of adjustment in our own cases.

"So, having returned back to Blakebrook in that interim period into demountable's was great for the kids who maybe hadn't been here before. We feel a sense of home now. And, the moving back across to Goolmangar while the building's taking place, that sort of hasn't been a bigger trauma in that case. It's not ideal by any means, but the kids have moved on. They're sort of used to it. And I think they think about the fact they can see construction now, so something's happening here. That's the excitement of it."

As for the thoughts of the School Captains, Alicia, Ayla, Darcy and Massimo, who won't get to enjoy the new facilities as they will be attending Richmond River in 2025?

(Artists impression of the new Blakebrook Public School to be completed during Term 2 2025)

"It's different. Like, we're on the old site, but it's different."

"It's great to be back and, like, relive all our moments being here. But it does look a lot smaller."

"I think it's gonna be good because there's gonna be more room to run around. It's gonna be good to see the new classrooms."

"I feel like the kids will enjoy having more area to play, like sports and the basketball court. I'm happy for my sister that she still gets to enjoy the school and we'll get to come back at the disco."

The annual disco event at the start of the year invites old Year 6 students to return to Blakebrook Public School. At that stage, construction will have made a great deal of progress; however, the completion date is forecast to be sometime during Term 2 2025. Of course, that is weather-dependent. There will be more opportunities for this year's Year 6 group to return and experience the new Blakebrook PS.

As Lousie said, "That sense of anticipation is really growing within the school community."