More than 50 excited students packed into the kitchen for the event on Tuesday, singing happy birthday to Ivan Carrucan.

While he cut his cake, teacher Lisa Lee cut the ribbon to officially open the learning facility, which school principal Robert Dowell said was the result of L. M. Price’s generous donation.

“Two years ago at the request of L. M. Price there was a lot of money left in her will to this school,” he said.

“She donated $1 million to 20 south-west organisations and we received $50,000, which we used to refurbish the kitchen. Without that money this wouldn’t have been possible.

“Our maintenance man David Borthwick virtually built it all and I’m sure we’re going to have many years of wonderful cooking in this kitchen.

“This is more up-to-date. It’s a much bigger facility and it’s purpose-built for our students.”

Construction for the kitchen began in this year’s first school term and was completed earlier this month.

After improvising without a permanent classroom for cooking and home economics, Mr Carrucan said his 80th birthday was the perfect celebration to coincide with opening the new kitchen.

“Every class has a weekly cooking session, so it will get a lot of use,” he said.

“This is much bigger and better organised.”