Newland Electorate Schools

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (15:32): Today, I would like to speak about some of my recent visits to schools in my electorate. For the third year now I have had the great honour of being the community panel member for the Global Citizens Medal at Banksia Park International High School. To be awarded this medal, students go through an application process where the final part is a presentation to a panel on a topic of their choice.

It is a process where students also demonstrate their commitment to the school community and the broader community. They made a number of very interesting and impressive presentations on a range of topics that included such things as space exploration, mental health awareness in schools, the environmental issues with fast fashion, poverty and education for girls in developing countries and music as a universal language, amongst a number of other topics.

These students also had to give a bit of a brief overview of some of their community involvement, which was quite impressive. It included organising quiz nights for a local mental health support group as well as work with sporting clubs—one particular student was a very good netball umpire and had been doing it from a very young age—as well as volunteers for the local council.

It was certainly a pleasure to once again be part of these medal presentations to see the commitment of the students to addressing and tackling some big issues, either within our local community or global issues, and their commitment to the local community. I would like in particular to acknowledge the efforts of Assistant Principal and Year 12 Manager, Bronwyn Eglinton, in coordinating the medal process.

I also recently had the pleasure of attending the Modbury South Primary School end-of-year concert, Curious Creatures and Wild Minds. I would very much like to congratulate the school staff and students, particularly the principal, Sharon Robertson, as well as the music teacher, Mr Trevor Swain, on all their efforts in putting this fantastic concert together. This year certainly presented many challenges and much uncertainty about the ability to hold events such as this, but they persisted nonetheless.

They had the school gym all set up with assigned seats for parents, spaced apart. There were two separate sessions and they had contact tracing sheets and all the other necessary things required to ensure a COVID-safe environment. I know that the principal, in particular, was really thrilled by how much it meant to the students to still be able to hold these performances. It really made all that effort worthwhile. Mr Swain also told me that for a while students were rehearsing for their performances without necessarily being certain about how the concert would actually be held.

They all did a wonderful job. The main feature was a family of teens or tweens watching TV, with individual class groups and year level groups performing shows, including such things as Ghostbusters, time travel, Harry Potter, Queen (both the monarch and the band) and much more. There were also two very impressive solo singing performances. I certainly take my hat off to anyone, particularly young people, willing to stand up and sing on their own in front of an audience. Congratulations to the Modbury South Primary School staff and students and the broader school community on such a wonderful event.

One of my favourite events of the year is being a guest judge for the Tea Tree Gully Primary School science fair. Groups of students design an experiment, a display or a poster on a scientific issue. As always, each group did an amazing job, making my job as a judge—along with Belinda, who is a parent and also a scientist—very difficult.

Highlights included the year 6 and year 7 students who made a hologram using plastic laminate made into a four-sided pyramid and an iPad and managed to have a hologram of fish and a dragonfly. They had to troubleshoot to get it to work, which is certainly real science. A year 1 student made rubber eggs in vinegar and produced a time-lapse video to show how the shell changed over time. Another team created a model volcano that erupted, and another looked at jelly beans and how they broke down in water, lemonade and Coke, and there were many other very worthy projects.

Visiting local schools is certainly one of my favourite things to do as a local member. I congratulate all the staff at schools on their work in what has been a very difficult year, and I wish all students and staff the very best for the rest of 2020.