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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-08 Daily Xml
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HACKHAM WEST SCHOOLS

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (16:14): Last Friday, I had the pleasure of attending a function at the Hackham West schools to celebrate the school being named a United Nations peace school, one of only five in South Australia and the only one in the southern suburbs. At that function, the principal, Yannoula Michael, the staff, the teachers, the students, of course, and many parents, caregivers and grandparents from around the area gathered in the school gymnasium. A United Nations flag was presented to the school which now flies proudly alongside the Australian flag outside the Hackham West school.

It was great to see the students performing songs and dance, reading speeches about peace and what it meant to them in their local environment and in the wider community, and then peace throughout the world. We do need to start young and if we can have kids learning all about these things then it puts them in good stead for the future and, indeed, it puts our community, hopefully, in a better place once these primary school students move through secondary school and into adulthood.

Jill Hicks, a South Australian who was injured in the London bombings a few years ago, came back from London to address the students. She was almost moved to tears, as many of the adults at the school were, by the wonderful emotion displayed through songs, words, drumming and other music by the students. The students are a credit to their teachers and their families for the way they behaved, the way that they spoke and they way that they performed for all the visitors. There were dignitaries not only from the United Nations but from state and federal parliament. Amanda Rishworth, our hard-working member for Kingston in the southern suburbs, was there representing the Australian parliament. She is also going to present the school with a new Australian flag so that the new United Nations flag does not look out of place against the slightly aged Australian flag that is currently there. I would like to thank Amanda for giving up her time and being there as well.

As I mentioned, Hackham West has become the fifth United Nations peace school in South Australia, and representatives from other schools as far away as Parafield Gardens made the trip down to Hackham West for last Friday's ceremony.

The United Nations Peace School initiative is part of the Save The Children movement and it had representatives there on the day. The day started, of course, with a Kaurna welcome (which was very well received) by one of the youngest students at the school who did a fantastic job in welcoming us to the school and explaining the link between the school and the Kaurna people.

A welcome was given by Eva Varga and Mrs Sathavy Suos, the United Nations representative. They handed the flag to the school and then a big cake was cut and handed out to all the students at the school. They then spent the rest of the day taking part in peace activities, and a barbecue luncheon.

Some of the things that the students were involved in were Tibetan flag making, yoga and other projects that saw the students work industriously together in a very quiet time for the school but on a day that the pupils, as young as they are, will not forget. Harmony Day was celebrated last month at primary schools throughout the state and I know that many members would have attended Harmony Day functions in their electorates. I went to Hackham East that day where the primary school students there were wearing orange as a sign of their commitment to harmony and getting on with others, not only in their school community but the wider community. We should commend the teachers and principals of these schools for exercising these great values.

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