The school has never had an upgrade to its facilities since it opened in 1965, but the $8.5 million development was officially opened by Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff.

Mr Rockliff said the school’s upgrades were part of the state government’s biggest investment in school infrastructure in more than 20 years.

Prospect High School principal Vicki Mackrill said the new facilities would help to foster collaborative learning at the school.

“It has already been really significant, the students just love being in the spaces,” she said.

The redevelopment included new student change rooms, communal spaces, a weights area, staff rooms and the administration area.

Mrs Mackrill said each grade got its own class rooms and shared communal space area.

“Everyone learns in a different way, but these facilities helps teachers to adapt to that,” she said.

The design was led in partnership with HBV and MWA architects.

HBV director Paul Cockburn said the architectural team had worked well together.

“The design was largely driven by the school, but we found a process that worked for everyone and it was a team effort,” he said.

He said 85 per cent of the work was done to existing buildings, but was happy to see the end result.

“The school is happy so we are happy,” he said.

Prospect High School has about 403 students and offers grades 7-10.

Mrs Mackrill said the upgrades would help improve the standing of the school in the community.

“It will be nice to give the parents the choice and to give them a quality public school to choose from.”

She said in recent years there had been a trend towards private schools in the area, but hoped the upgrades would move that trend back to Prospect High School.

However, Mrs Mackrill said it would move to offering grade 11 and 12 in the coming years.

A second stage of upgrade work to provide facilities for the grade 11 and 12 cohort is expected to begin next year.

Mrs Mackrill said a new building would need to be constructed.