MORPHETT VALE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (15:32): I rise today to speak about yet another school in my electorate which is doing an excellent job. I am rather sick of hearing about problems in education. I want to talk about what is the day-to-day business of education, and that is supporting our children to be able to excel with the abilities that they have.

One of my principals told me the other day that he has been a principal for over 20 years and at no time in his recollection have the state and commonwealth governments both been doing good things for schools, and he sees that the programs that are now supporting schools are to the great benefit of children in disadvantaged areas in particular. This was not the principal of the Morphett Vale Primary School, which is the school I want to talk about this afternoon.

This new school was formed as a result of the amalgamation of the Morphett Vale West Primary School, John Morphett Primary School and John Morphett kindy, as part of Education Works Stage 2. The two previous schools were facing falling enrolments because of the demographics of the area and they could see that, by combining, they could offer children a much better education and much better social and sporting opportunities than were available in schools of only about 100 enrolments.

Combining two schools is a challenging task for a leader, and I really want to commend Mr Stan Hagias, and the support he has had from the deputy principal and school councillors, who has led this difficult job of building a new school community, a new school ethos and finding its place in the wider community. The school only opened at the end of last year and this is its second year. It is working in new areas, as well as achieving improvements in the literacy and numeracy tests within the school.

The new school offers the opportunity for occasional care and outside-school-hours care, which were not available previously. The school also combines a new preschool right at the front of the school, and this has seen dramatically increased enrolments, as parents begin to see the benefits of having a school that offers support right from the earliest years of a child's life through to year 7. The school is also working in partnership with The Smith Family to support both children and parents in their learning opportunities.

A consistent whole school approach to teaching literacy and numeracy has been one of the factors that has lead to the improvements in outcomes for the school. The combination of the school has meant that the dream of having more sporting opportunities available has been realised, with strong teams in soccer, basketball, netball and cricket now represented, and many students are also becoming members of the Lonsdale Football Club, which shares the grounds of the school oval.

The school culture continues to develop, and this also reaches out to the community in the form of having walking groups based at the school. The students are proud of their new uniform, and they are proud of their new school. The parents are really active, and with a school with an enrolment of less than 300, having 19 members on the governing council indicates the way the parents are coming together to develop a school that can offer the best for their children.

One recent example of the active nature of parent involvement related to safety issues with the school crossing in nearby Acre Avenue. I wish to commend the way the local police worked with the school to find a way of solving the problem of bad driver behaviour at the school crossing. It is a difficult school crossing, in that you cannot see at the crossing that there is a school nearby, but the police got onto the matter.

I assisted with distributing a DL flyer to all the neighbours, reminding them that the school has opened, and that kids don't bounce and that they are required to do 25 km/h in school zones. Morphett Vale Primary School is off to a brilliant start and a brilliant future.

Time expired.