Charles Sturt University (CSU) has opened its doors to the students and teachers of Kelso High School Bathurst, helping to ensure that the students' education continues as smoothly as possible in the coming weeks.

Students from Year 8, 10 and Year 11 and teaching staff from the high school, which was destroyed by a fire on Friday night, will have access to facilities on the University’s Bathurst Campus as early as this Thursday, 25 August.

Science laboratories, up to 15 class rooms, the gymnasium and computing laboratories, have been made available to the high school, as well as an assembly hall where all of the students and staff can meet. Students will have access to the library, with staff given full borrowing rights in light of losing years of resource material.  

Head of Bathurst Campus and Dean of the Faculty of Education, Professor Bob Meyenn said the University had reacted quickly to the devastating news of the fire, offering help to the school on the weekend.

“It’s a terrible thing that has happened to the school but we are here to provide as much help and support as we can to the community,” said Professor Meyenn.            

“The staff and students of the University have been working tirelessly to ensure that classrooms and laboratories are available to ensure the students’ education needs are catered for.”

CSU Faculty of Education lecturers have been gathering their own curriculum resources as well as those of the University for use by Kelso High teachers in the coming weeks.      

About 340 Kelso High School students and 30 staff will be accommodated on the CSU Bathurst Campus until the end of Term 3, with teachers allocated a staff room fitted out with computers and students able to use general facilities on the campus such as canteens and the post office. Other Kelso High students will be accommodated at Bathurst High and Bathurst TAFE.

The Education Department's western NSW regional director, Carole McDiarmid, said in a statement that the department hoped the accommodation of the students at CSU, Bathurst High School and TAFE, would “be a very positive start”. 

“It’s great that the University is able to help the community in this way and support the teachers and students of Kelso High,” Professor Meyenn said.