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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-17 Daily Xml
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STUART HIGH SCHOOL

The Hon. L.R. BREUER (Giles) (15:30): Today I want to congratulate a school in Whyalla, Stuart High School, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary at the weekend, and I will be involved in the celebrations. We have four excellent high schools in Whyalla. My colleague, the Minister for Finance, who is sitting in front of me, and I both attended Whyalla High School, and Whyalla High School is very dear to my heart, but Stuart is a very special school in Whyalla. It is a school that I am very proud of and proud to be associated with.

Stuart High School has always been at the forefront of practical learning and teaching programs. It has had a chequered history with students who have come from very difficult backgrounds, very often, and has provided programs that have suited those students and enabled them to thrive. The school has had excellent facilities to implement the programs that have been put into the school and many areas of the school have recently been upgraded.

The school has always prided itself on involving the community in these education practices and that tradition still lives on today, with the school continuing to offer pioneer programs that offer practical skills and knowledge that students can carry with them into the future. They have had a program in the last five years called the Youth Opportunities Personal Leadership program, and this has had great success among the students. It has also provided aquaculture and horticulture programs, which are particularly relevant to our part of the state.

The school has offered the community opportunities for involvement through tourist tours. We are able to purchase smoked fish there, which are bred and smoked there on site. They are very involved in the Activ8 program. They deliver the South Australian Aboriginal Sports Training Academy program, because they have a very high proportion of Indigenous students. They made international headlines last year with the opening of the world-first Albert Ellis Professional Learning Centre at the school.

On Saturday, I am really looking forward to hearing the first-ever Stuart High School principal, John Lyons, who will be a distinguished guest on the day. He will be addressing the students and the people that will be attending. John Lyons was a teacher of mine at Whyalla High School and stands out in my memory as the teacher who most influenced my life, because he actually taught us to think and not just accept things. The minister in front of me is nodding and agrees that he was an outstanding teacher. So, I am really looking forward to having John back to celebrate the 40th anniversary. It is wonderful for the school.

I also pay tribute to the principal, Veronica Conley, because a lot of the things that have happened at that school would not have happened without steering from Veronica Conley. I understand she is up for renewal of her contract. I would be very, very disappointed if she was not to get that role, because I know that the school has flourished under her, that the teachers are very happy with her, and so are the students. I am certainly keeping my fingers crossed that she stays on as the principal, and she is happy to stay there, which is very good. So, good luck to Stuart High School. I am sure we are going to have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to spending a lot more time with you in the future.

Today I also acknowledge the sisters of the good Samaritan in Whyalla, who will be leaving Whyalla in December after many, many years of dedicated service in the community. The sisters of the good Samaritan were founded in Sydney in 1857 in response to the needs of the early colony. The sisters have a vocation to go out and be neighbourly to all, especially the poor, the marginalised, the suffering, Aboriginal people, women, youth and children. This is certainly a tradition that they have upheld in Whyalla in the many years that they have been there.

In 1941, the Bishop of Port Pirie wrote to the Superior General Mother and asked if she would send sisters to Whyalla as they desperately needed a Catholic school. There were more than 100 Catholic children and the number was constantly increasing with the arrival of new families. Well, they arrived and they have remained ever since.

They started St Theresa's School in Darling Terrace; later, they moved on to St Francis Xavier's primary school and later went into the Secondary School for Girls. When in 1962 the Christian Brothers opened St John's College, there was a separate girls school, but eventually the girls were amalgamated with the boys and now we have Samaritan College, which is an amazing college in Whyalla.

These sisters have provided work in Whyalla for many years, working with the community in Centrecare, performing midwifery at the Whyalla Hospital, where they also visited the sick and elderly. They have always been a pleasure and wonderful people to work with, but they are moving away and closing in Whyalla. I wish them all the best and thank them from the bottom of my heart from the people of Whyalla for their service to Whyalla.

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