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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-26 Daily Xml
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Newland Electorate Schools

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (15:34): As a local member, one of my most favourite things to do is visit the schools in my electorate and engage with students. Certainly, this time of year is full of many school events, as we have a number of graduations and end-of-year assemblies, and I have attended a number so far.

A couple of weeks ago, Modbury High School had their year 12 valedictory assembly. This is a highly community-engaged school and, as always, it was a wonderful event where they recognised the extracurricular contributions of all students to the school community as well as acknowledged those students with a great record of attendance. In particular, I would like to commend the school band for their wonderful performances and all the award winners. I was certainly honoured to be able to sponsor and present the best all-rounder award to a very talented young woman who excelled both in her own education and as a contributor to the broader school community.

Last week, I attended Banksia Park International High School valedictory night, which is a great evening held at the Convention Centre here in the city. The year 12s share this wonderful night with their friends and family. I was honoured to present the Newland electorate award, as well as the global citizens award medals to those students who participated in those programs. That is a program that I have spoken about in here before. I certainly congratulate all those award winners.

I would also like to acknowledge Liz Heidenreich, who was the guest speaker and a former student of Banksia Park International High School. She talked about her time at the school, as well as her career in nursing and then winemaking. She now has her own label. This year followed on from the also very impressive speech last year given by Tony Clark, Managing Director of Rising Sun Pictures. Both are former students of Banksia Park International High School and really provide an example of what is possible following on from your education at that school. It was also fantastic to have the Premier there at the valedictory night to congratulate the graduates on their efforts and successes and to wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

At the end of last week, I attended the graduation at Modbury Special School. This is a very important graduation for the year 12 and year 7 students. There were about 10 year 12 students, and five of them were able to come along on the night. I was honoured to present a community service award to a very worthy recipient who had consistently gone above and beyond in supporting his school community. This particular graduation is a truly wonderful event and certainly one of the highlights of the year.

We heard from the principal, Cam Wright, the story of how this graduation night had come to be. It had started in 2012, driven in particular by a parent who had consistently made the point that many of the parents of children at Modbury Special School do not get to do a lot of the things that parents of many other children do, in particular the graduation, which had been the case. The event had started to become quite popular amongst the school community, including staff, students and parents.

The true vindication of this graduation came when a particular student—a young man who had been quite unwell during his school years—had graduated and then not long afterwards had very sadly passed away. A number of the staff from the school attended his funeral, and at the funeral his graduation photo was on display. This was a very clear indication of how incredibly special a night this graduation is for those parents, students and staff, and their parents are incredibly proud. Certainly, last Friday night was no exception, and all the parents and teachers and caregivers were immensely proud of the young people graduating.

In the coming weeks, I will certainly have the honour of attending many more end-of-year assemblies and graduations for year 7 students. I would like to congratulate all the year 12 students and year 7 students on their efforts this year. I wish them all the very best for their future, whether it be entering high school, graduating from year 12 and going to university, vocational educational training, apprenticeships, traineeships or other employment. We certainly have a large number of very impressive young people in our state and our world will certainly be in safe hands.

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