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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-03 Daily Xml
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TRINITY GARDENS PRIMARY SCHOOL

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood) (16:14): Today, I rise to speak to the house on the Trinity Gardens Primary School. Today must be the day for primary schools. The Trinity Gardens Primary School is, of course, based in my electorate in Trinity Gardens. It is a fantastic primary school on large expansive grounds, superb—

An honourable member: Super.

Mr MARSHALL: It is not quite super but it is a very good school. It has a very dedicated principal, great deputy principals and fantastic students. I have visited them many times. They have got a school ambassadors program and the ambassadors who have been elected this year by the student population are doing a fantastic job of representing the student population. As I said, it is located in Trinity Gardens—as the name would suggest—but that is not always the way, with the way schools are named. I really want to address today the issue of the bus service which was hitherto provided by DECS for wheelchair-bound students at that school. Up until the end of term 1 this year, DECS provided dedicated bus services to bring wheelchair-bound students to the school and, importantly, also to transport them to hydrotherapy sessions at Regency Park and other activities the school put in place for them. Unfortunately, towards the end of term 1, with very limited time to respond, DECS removed the funding for that important service.

Trinity Gardens Primary School has within its area, the St Morris unit, which integrates children with severe and multiple disabilities into the mainstream education program of the school. There are nine students currently in wheelchairs in this program. Parents of these children fight very hard to offer their children the best of services via the DECS system, and now unfortunately the only bus which actually caters for wheelchair-bound students in the eastern suburbs is being removed.

This bus is also shared with the Kensington Special School, also based in my electorate, and it has been removed and redeployed down to the Adelaide West school at Taperoo. I am not saying that this is not a valid use for the bus, and I am not wanting to play down the need for the students in the western suburbs to have a facility like this but, of course, as the member representing both the Trinity Gardens Primary School and also the Kensington Special School, it is particularly disappointing that this valuable service is being taken away.

Where does this leave the students at Trinity Gardens Primary School? They still have really no confirmation from the minister as to how they are going to be getting to school or hydrotherapy going forward. The minister has assured parents that important swimming lessons will continue. Unfortunately, this does not provide any clarity as to who is going to be paying for their transport services going forward. Our real concern is that this will become an increasing cost which will be borne by the school and that, in turn, the school will have to cut other services to other students at the school.

It really highlights a major problem within DECS and that is the lack of sustainable transport planning from the government so that it does not have a negative impact upon these students. While the government has come up with this quick fix of hiring a private charter with an unfamiliar driver—and, of course, the familiarity of the permanent driver was a major benefit to the students—it really does not fix this central issue that there has not been robust planning for transport for students with disabilities, and now we are suffering in the eastern suburbs.

It is no good simply assuring people that transport to swimming classes will continue without actually providing real clarity as to what is going to happen from a funding position. I believe that the concerns of the parents and, of course, the school governing board, are very genuine concerns. I support their concerns and I call upon the minister to make it clear what is going to happen in terms of funding for this important service in the east, and, if it is to come out of the school's normal budget, what other services he would recommend be cut?

Time expired.

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