13 July 2023 - The Epping Club launches ‘Immersive Classroom’ at Karonga School

The Epping Club is proud to announce the completion its latest community project, a purpose built immersive classroom at Karonga School. The yearlong project which saw the Club contribute over $60,000 to the project brings new learning and life experiences to the students, many of which the children would otherwise never encounter.

Since 2018, Karonga has been the Epping Club’s largest single benefactor under the ClubGrants Program, an initiative which sees Registered Clubs strategically contribute funds back into the local community.

Previous work has seen an upgrade to sports facilities, physical training support in the school’s gym and the planting of a school orchid. Located in Epping, The Karonga School offers educational programs for students with special needs from their early years through to the end of high school. The school provides programs of excellence in special education within a caring and supportive environment under the NSW Department of Education. Combining it’s inspiring work undertaken and local community proximity to the Club, the school was a natural choice as a philanthropy partner. The completion of the immersive classroom is yet another milestone of this exceptional relationship and marker of the success of the ClubGrants program across NSW.

An immersive classroom is a unique educational space bringing multi-sensory environments into the modern classroom which gives pupils an engaging and expansive learning experience. By harnessing the power of transformative potential through immersive learning the experiences and understanding of the students are enriched. Immersive Learning is an experiential methodology that uses Virtual Reality (VR) to simulate real-world scenarios and teach students in a safe and engaging immersive environment.

Karonga School Principal, Ruth Rogers said that the classroom was ‘life changing’ for many pupils who would otherwise never experience many of the scenarios is could offer. “From sand to snow, catching a train to attending a museum, these children have largely never done these things. From an enrichment perspective and also as a learning tool this is a state of the art classroom that our children can now benefit from.”

CEO Peter Saez said his greatest satisfaction is in seeing the benefit of the project to the students of Karonga and being able to assist the school to continue its exceptional work with special needs children.

‘We have long admired the great work the Karonga School does, and we are delighted to have been able to achieve this project for them. My team and I are passionate that The Epping Club leaves a meaningful footprint in the local area and we believe this is very much part of this project. We are delighted to see the launch of the immersive classroom and are now further motivated to continue with our work in this area.’