Pinnacle College

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:21): On Monday of this week, I was really pleased to be invited once again to visit Pinnacle College at Elizabeth East, in my electorate. As you probably know, Deputy Speaker, Pinnacle College is a small independent school which has its origins in Burc College, which started life in 2005 at Gilles Plains.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: And there's a little bit of it still there.

Mr ODENWALDER: Yes, it's still going strong. I understand it is a primary school, whereas the campus in—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Big school.

Mr ODENWALDER: Big school, yes. The campus in Elizabeth East is an R to 12. It is a lovely school. It is growing. I say it is a small school, but it is growing rapidly. Their stated mission is, 'Create a world with no room for fear of the unknown, misconceptions or misunderstandings,' and they put a lot of emphasis on community service and, in their words, 'contributing to the future of Australia'.

I was invited to talk to the year 10s about the future of work and the importance of education. It was a great discussion. I think I gave them the rather sobering news that every job that I had had up until the age of 30 is now obsolete, so they had better stay at school for as long as they possibly can and learn to understand society and get a broad range of what we call enterprise skills, rather than a narrow range of skills.

Before I did that, the staff, as always, laid on their fantastic morning tea, with their very strong Turkish coffee, which I enjoyed with my staffer, Brad; the principal, Mr Halil Yilmaz; the senior coordinator, Nurudeen Suraju; and their human resources manager, Jonathon Piasente. I mention them by name not only because they are committed teachers and administrators at the school but because they are also locals, and they are locals out of choice. They have chosen to move and live locally because of their commitment to be an integral part of the community which they serve.

Mr Yilmaz, for instance, has come from his previous post in Sydney to live in Elizabeth Grove, immediately opposite the new training grounds of Adelaide United as it happens, while Mr Suraju has made a circuitous journey from Ghana, through various teaching and administrative posts, including in the British High Commission in Ghana, to live, in his words, across the road from the school.

So, they are a pretty dedicated bunch, and you can hear the commitment in the way they talk about the school, its students, its curriculum, and the various programs they develop to reach out to their own community. This outreach is important because when Pinnacle College (or Burc College) was first set up in Elizabeth East in 2010, on the site of the old Playford High School, there was some community disquiet about what people referred to as a Muslim school, or an Islamic school.

As I told the morning tea, when I grew up in Elizabeth it was a very Anglo-centric place. Very few of the people I grew up with were from a non-British culture, and this was true of Elizabeth up until quite recently. In order to combat the community disquiet, the school leadership took some really impressive proactive measures. Together with their students, they embarked on a consistent and energetic community outreach program—doorknocking, open days, leafleting, community barbecues and sports days—and I am pleased to say that the local community in Elizabeth East has come to embrace this growing school, and a growing school it is.

As I said, the Elizabeth campus commenced operation in 2010 and it caters for primary and secondary school students from reception to year 12. In 2010, there were only 22 students. Now, in 2016, there are more than 300, and it is still growing. They pride themselves on a high quality of education, and Pinnacle College has become a multicultural school with students from more than 21 nationalities. English is the main language taught at the school, but a lot of the languages spoken at home include Indian, Afghan, Arabic and Uzbek.

Indeed, while it is a school based in a Muslim tradition, and they are still quite proud of that, its attitude is resolutely inclusive, and more and more non-Muslim parents from the local area are choosing to send their kids to Pinnacle College simply because of its reputation and its academic results. Indeed, the college enjoys strong academic success, with all its 2014 graduates and 72 per cent of its 2015 graduates going on to university with high SACE scores, including two students receiving ATAR scores above 90 and two current year 12 students receiving an A+ for their research assignment. With those words, I wish Pinnacle College and its local leadership all the best for the future, and I look forward to continuing to watch it grow throughout the years.