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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-12-01 Daily Xml
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Little Para Electorate

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:39): Like all members here, this time of year sees us all juggling our parliamentary duties with many commitments particularly around schools, and I just want to speak about a few school graduation ceremonies I have attended in the past week.

The first two were the graduation ceremonies for the two secondary schools in my electorate, both of which have undergone massive change in recent times, and they are both in the process of transforming themselves under exceptional school leadership into modern colleges which serve the needs of local students, that is, to offer them an exceptional and relevant education and to do everything they possibly can to lead them towards fulfilling and relevant vocational pathways.

Members may remember that in this year's budget $7.5 million was allocated to Fremont Elizabeth City High School to become what they call the state's first transformational school under the leadership of principal Rob Knight, who came from Clare High School. As well as brand-new facilities and learning spaces for technology, arts and humanity subjects, students are already benefiting from radical new approaches to the curriculum itself.

This new approach focuses on bringing out the best in each individual student and creating pathways to further study or employment tailored to individual student's needs, and the aim is that students will be better prepared, obviously, for life after high school. The school is also transforming on the outside, with new uniforms and a logo and a change in name to Playford International College, which has been approved by the school community and by the department and which will officially open next year.

So, every step of the way principal Rob Knight has brought the community along with him. He has boundless energy and a belief that the school can be and is being transformed, and there are already substantial changes. There is a palpable sense of pride amongst both staff and students of Fremont. There is a sense that things are finally happening where, for so long, there was stagnation.

Perhaps the best early indicator is the improvement in SACE completion rates. In recent years, Fremont has had amongst the worst completion rates in the state, hovering around the low 20 per cent. This year they are on track to achieve results somewhere above 80 per cent completion, which anyone would agree is a remarkable transformation. This is an exciting time for my old school and I look forward to watching Playford International College transform into a great 21st century secondary college.

I was proud that night, as always, to present my Community Leadership Prize, but I am also very proud to have been able to facilitate the presentation of $4,000 worth of scholarships in the name of the Andrew Knox Foundation, which I will speak about at a later date, but for those us who knew Andrew this is a very fitting legacy to be able to give scholarships to underprivileged children who want to make their lives better.

It is a similar story with Northern Adelaide Senior College (NASC). Under innovative and energetic leadership, a school which was largely no longer fulfilling its purpose has been transformed. In the case of the Northern Adelaide Senior College, it was not simply a change of name, from Para West Adult Campus, but a change of physical location, from a tired, old site some kilometres away from the centre of Elizabeth to a co-location arrangement with Elizabeth TAFE, adjacent to the Elizabeth City Centre, the train station, St Patrick's Technical College and, perhaps most importantly, the City of Playford's Northern Sound System, with whom NASC is building a successful symbiotic relationship around music and performing arts education.

And, like Fremont, the changes are stark and palpable. Principal Colleen Abbot can take a fair amount of credit for this remarkable change. She has overseen this process, not only the physical move but the updating of the curriculum and the switching of focus towards vocational and educational outcomes and SACE completion, where the focus should be. But credit should also be given to the work of the outgoing school council chair, Dr Bev O'Brien, who will be a great loss to the school and also to Northern Connections, where she was most recently employed, as well as supportive voices in government—current and former ministers for education, including the member for Wright, the Premier and the former member for Napier.

With the time I have left, as well as my two local secondary school graduations, last week I also had the opportunity to represent the Minister for Education at the graduation ceremony of the Disability Transition Program, a program which works with schools and with Barkuma to build vocational pathways for students with a disability.

The Disability Transition Program is an excellent example of collaboration between the disability, education and employment sectors, and it really does highlight this government's commitment to supporting young people with disabilities. The program has been in operation for over 10 years and it supports metropolitan Adelaide students from the three schooling sectors to complete their SACE and to make effective transitions from school to the workforce, or to traineeships, apprenticeships or further education.

In 2015 over 60 students from 31 schools across the three schooling sectors participated in the Disability Transition Program. As well as learning technical skills and direct vocational skills, the participants also focused on other less tangible skills: resilience, persistence, time management, and communication skills, which, as we know, are skills that employers look for. I was very proud to represent the minister on that evening.

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