Public Works Committee: Underdale High School Redevelopment

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:52): I move:

That the 69^th report of the committee for the Fifty-Fourth Parliament, entitled Underdale High School Redevelopment Project, be noted.

Mr Speaker, as you are aware, Underdale High School was allocated funding of $20 million as part of the Department for Education's capital works program. When complete, the redevelopment works will enable Underdale to accommodate 850 students which will support the transition of year 7 students into high school.

Key features of the proposed redevelopment include new buildings such as a performing arts centre, a new school canteen, a new administration building accommodating student services, and also a counselling area. Included as well in the scope of works are extensions to the gymnasium and the school's automotive workshop which will provide a new metalwork area. The project will further include refurbishment to existing buildings, external landscaping and the demolition of aged buildings on the school site. The redevelopment project at Underdale High School is expected to be staged, with construction scheduled for completion in December 2021.

The committee examined written evidence in relation to the Underdale High School redevelopment project and is satisfied the proposal has been subject to the appropriate agency consultation and meets the criteria for the examination of projects with which you are familiar, Mr Speaker, and which is set out in the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991. Based on the evidence considered, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed scope of the works that I have outlined.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (11:53): I am very pleased to have the opportunity in the brief time left to us in the course of committee business to discuss the redevelopment works at Underdale High School. I am very grateful for the work of the Public Works Committee in enabling this and so many other school projects around South Australia to get underway. It is a critical stage in the process, that oversight on behalf of the parliament and the people of South Australia of the expenditure of public funds. This is an expenditure of $20 million of public funds on what will be an outstanding redevelopment of the Underdale High School facility.

This is a school which I had the great privilege of spending some time in a bit over a year ago, visiting David Harris and his team, David Harris being the principal, and indeed meeting with a number of other members of the local community, the local member as well, in the opening of their new STEM facility, which I think is enabling that school to increase the output of young engineers, scientists and mathematicians in their work.

The addition of year 7s coming in is anticipated to grow the school from its current numbers, which are a bit in excess of 500, to potentially in excess of 800 students. It is a growing school. It is a school with an awesome potential for that growth, and the facilities are going to look just outstanding. I encourage anybody who is listening to this debate to jump on the education department's website and just have a look at some of the pictures under the new capital works build, of what this school is going to look like, what this $20 million transformation is going to do for Underdale High School.

It is a school where the teaching and learning are of a high calibre and a high quality, and the facilities that are being created will ensure that the students attending this school can walk in and feel the high level of opportunity that is there for them and that will enable the facilitation of the teaching and learning to be done in an area designed for a modern pedagogy and the modern way of delivering that learning.

Russell and Yelland were the architects, and Watpac construction is doing great work. Construction is underway, and it is due to be completed in November next year. We will see a new performing arts building combining music and drama areas, a performance space for 150 people with partially retractable seating, a canteen and classrooms; a new two-storey admin building adjacent to student services; an upgrade of the main school entry and refurbishment of reception, admin areas and amenities; general learning areas refurbishment, including a textile space, science laboratories, general learning areas and home ec building; the extension to the gymnasium; and the demolition of ageing architecture and the automotive workshop. There is a range of opportunities that will be opened up by this redevelopment.

Can I say that this is a school that has also done some great work in recent years in the bullying space. Some of the feedback I had from the young people I met when I was there, I think a little over a year ago, was about just how proud they were of the way the older students in the school support the younger students in the school, the way that compassion and kindness are important aspects of the values of what is taught in that school explicitly through some of the work done with the staff and indeed in the values the students have embraced in supporting each other in their development. I commend them for that.

I commend those students for the ownership they have taken of their school values and for ensuring that all young people at Underdale High School get a great education and get the safe learning areas they deserve and, indeed, that anybody who is in the Underdale High School area can be very proud of their school and look forward to the great education it offers for their children and the young people in the inner western suburbs of Adelaide.

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (11:57): As a member of this house representing the electorate of Colton, I do take in a very small portion of the Underdale zone. Given the crunch and the time limitations I am under, I just wanted to put on record my welcoming of the $20 million upgrade at Underdale High School. I know that it will put that school in a great position, moving forward, to continue to attract those around its local area to come and see their full potential through the works that are being undertaken. I support the comments and the sentiment that the Minister for Education has just expressed and wish to place on record again my support for this development.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:58): Can I acknowledge the Minister for Education and the member for Colton for their contributions to the debate. The minister, of course, as I earlier remarked, has a very substantial program of work to support new capital works and to develop and enhance schools within his portfolio and across the state, and we are very grateful for the way in which he is discharging that responsibility, not least in relation to this project, which is, as has earlier been remarked, substantial and transformational.

It is a very significant investment, it is an important one, it will deliver exceptional facilities for the site and it will support future growth and also the existing teaching program, which is, as the minister remarked, of exceptional quality. The leadership, guidance, compassion and kindness, as was earlier remarked in relation to the school group and of course the school leadership group, are well known.

It is important that it be recorded in this place that we are very appreciative of that leadership and the commitment of the school community to this project. It is also important for me to acknowledge the very powerful and effective advocacy of the member for Colton, not just in relation to this project but, of course, in relation to the project earlier addressed in this place, in respect of Henley High School.

Motion carried.