Parkes High School celebrates opening of new kitchen classroom

Hospitality students and staff at Parkes High School have celebrated the opening of their new kitchen space on Friday, November 23. Food tech and hospitality teacher Kylie Jones said the replacement of the building had been underway for quite a few years, and the original building hadn't been renovated for many years. Ms Jones said the school was fortunate enough to get a grant which helped them undertake renovation works, which includes modern efficient cooking stations, a larger butler's kitchen and laundry, as well as an accessible cooking station which is designed to cater for students with disabilities. Ms Jones said the new kitchen area is terrific and the students are excited to come and work in there. The newly refurbished kitchen was open for classes since term 4 of this year. Ms Jones said the project was managed by Terry Job, who had a lot to do with the engineers and design of the kitchen, along with the input of kitchen hand Lea Oram. Project Manager Terry Job said the idea that they could build this came around three years ago and they had a lot of staff input, particularly staff who would be using the facilities, about how they could see it as a utility within the school which was also student friendly. Works on the building itself began around 15 months ago, Ms Jones said, with them having to practically remove the old building. "There are very few fittings in here at all from the old building, the old kitchen, this is all new and fit-for-purpose," she said. Mr Job said the old building was no longer fit-for-purpose and they designed the new kitchen to today's standards. "We're very, very happy that we've got to this stage," he said.