MORE school excursions and visits between campuses are high on the list of priorities for Kinglake-region schools after the delivery of their new “Sunshine Bus”.

Children’s charity Variety and the Shane Warne Foundation delivered the 12-seater bus to a gathering of Kinglake, Middle Kinglake and Kinglake West Primary Schools last week as part of their ongoing post-bushfire assistance.

Kinglake West principal Mark Portman said students and staff were delighted with the number of activities the new bus would allow the schools to share.

“It gives us a fantastic opportunity to take small groups of kids, and move them around the local area,” he said.

“If we’ve got a netball team or a group of kids going to do a radio show, we don’t want to hire a $200 or $300 bus for a few kids.

“We can take a big group down to the national park in a couple of trips – it will be brilliant.”

Mr Portman said although the bus was donated to the Kinglake schools, it would hopefully be used by the wider school district.

“I spoke to (Flowerdale Primary School’s principal) and we’ve got the kinder at our school at the moment; we’ve said to them if they want to visit around town, the bakery or the fire station, they are welcome to use it.”

And the first trip on the schedule?

“There’s so many possibilities; we’ll probably head down to Kinglake first and have a game of netball with the kids down there,” Mr Portman said.