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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-11-12 Daily Xml
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Public Works Committee: Glossop High School Redevelopment

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:44): I move:

That the 75th report of the committee for the Fifty-Fourth Parliament, entitled Glossop High School Redevelopment Project, be noted.

Mr Speaker, as you well know, Glossop High School currently has two locations: the middle school campus, which supports years 8 to 10, is situated in Glossop and the senior campus for years 11 and 12 is located in the township of Berri. The proposed redevelopment will consolidate these disparate campuses onto one site through the relocation of the middle school campus to the senior school campus at Berri.

The total project funding for the Glossop High School redevelopment project is $17.202 million, and when complete, the redevelopment will deliver refurbished existing facilities and new construction works. The accommodation is directed at ensuring that there are appropriate facilities for up to 800 students on the Glossop High School Berri campus.

Features of the Glossop High School redevelopment project include the construction of two new hub buildings which will provide flexible and open learning environments with a range of open and closed spaces, as well as general and technical learning areas. One hub building will be for the year 7 and year 8 cohort and the other hub will be for the year 9 and year 10 cohort. There will also be an extension of the school's existing performing arts building, and the administration building will have improvements and extensions as well. There will also be a minor refurbishment to classrooms as part of several projects.

When completed, the Glossop High School redevelopment project will support the expected future enrolment growth at the school, which includes the transition of year 7 students into high school in 2022. It is anticipated that the proposed works, including the new building works and refurbishments, will be completed in a single stage. Construction is expected to be completed by October 2021.

The committee has examined written evidence in relation to the Glossop High School redevelopment project, which advised that the required consultation in relation to this project had been undertaken. It follows that the committee is satisfied that the proposal has been subject to the appropriate agency consultation and meets the criteria for the examination of projects as described in the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991.

Based on the evidence considered, and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends this scope of public works I have outlined to the house.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (11:47): I rise to welcome this report. It is a great initiative for the middle campus and the senior campus to amalgamate. It has been done with a lot of consultation and the current Minister for Education has listened and acted. It has taken over $17 million of a mixture of funding—previous funding plus some new, additional funding—to make this project a reality.

This is something that has been in the making for an extended period of time. It is great to see that the Marshall Liberal government has seen fit to find some common sense in bringing those two campuses together. We know that the Glossop middle campus is situated in the township of Glossop and the senior campus is in the township of Berri. This brings efficiencies into the school, with teachers not having to travel between campuses, and it brings some continuity and certainty that Glossop High School will be a much better positioned teaching institution with that single campus.

I must say that I have dealt with a number of the school's principals over time—I think there have been three—and the governing council. My last visit to the senior campus at Berri was with the Minister for Education, the Hon. John Gardner (member for Morialta). It was such a pleasure to go there and see the works that had started on this project. These works will bring the facility up to a class education precinct.

Glossop High School principal, Emily Griggs, is doing an outstanding job. She is making sure that all the i's are dotted and that the t's are crossed in bringing the 700 or so students from that middle campus into the senior campus, which currently houses some 250 students. It is a great project and I am absolutely delighted that we are seeing this upgrade. It is bringing opportunities for those students at Glossop to come together and have a class education facility, so I welcome the report and I thank the Minister for Education.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (11:49): There is an absolutely world-class facility that is being constructed at Berri: the new, united Glossop High School campus. As the member for Chaffey outlined, we were able to visit it a few months ago and it was a real pleasure to engage with Emily Griggs, the principal, who is an outstanding school leader.

Representatives joined us from the teachers and the governing council to look at the great work that is already underway at that campus. It is a school that is very much in touch and engaged with its local community and is delivering great work but it is also a school that has had the complexity of dealing with two campuses for a very long period of time.

Just as at the Norwood Morialta High School, with campuses split between Magill and Rostrevor, and the three schools at Whyalla, where the years 8, 9 and 10 were on a different campus from that of years 11 and 12, those points of transition—going from one campus to another, especially when it is in a different town—are a point of risk and a point of complexity for the student, their teaching and their welfare. Enabling a smooth transition from year 7 through to year 12 on the one campus and one site with world-class facilities will be a game changer for so many people in the Riverland, particularly those children who attend Glossop High School.

One complexity, of course, is that Glossop High School, which is now going to be entirely located in Berri, has required us to consider a new name. The government's approach has been very much to bring the community into that discussion. There was obviously a committee involved, with principals, lead educators and members of the community. They brought forward a short list and the community response to that short list of four names actually provoked a really interesting discussion with lots and lots of suggestions of other names as well.

Rather than just taking the bureaucratically easy option, I really commend the Department for Education and the school for the recommendation they gave me, which I probably would have gone with anyway. They looked at it in a different way. They said, 'Let's go out to community consultation again. Let's bring in some of these fantastic ideas that the community put forward.' We have had such a strong level of community engagement with not just the short-listed names but ranges of other suggestions. I think the committee that is looking at that is giving me advice and I am looking forward to being in a position to announce that in the not too distant future.

That will be the new name for the school, but it will still have at its bones the great school community Glossop High School has had for many years, but in an enhanced physical environment. There was a $6 million grant given, I think, under Building Better Schools in 2017. That was not going to get it done, so, like so many of these other projects, we have enhanced that project. Indeed, it is now a $17.2 million project so we can get this done right and do the job that the students at Glossop High School and in that broader Berri and Riverland region deserve.

Greenway Architects have done a tremendous job. When the member for Chaffey and I were visiting in July, we saw the workers on site from Sitzler with shovels in the ground. It is a project that is creating a number of new facilities and refurbishing others throughout the site, so across the site of the school there is a range of those different, discrete projects that are well underway: refurbishments, expansions, construction of new buildings and, indeed, as in a number of projects, the removal of some of the old infrastructure.

I cannot wait to see what is going to be the final product at Berri. It is going to look terrific and it is going to be a terrific experience for those students. December next year will be a very exciting time as that reaches its conclusion. On day one of 2022, the year 7s in the area will be coming into the new building for the year 7s in Berri and it will be a terrific day. I commend the member for Chaffey particularly for his advocacy on this project.

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (11:55): I acknowledge the minister's contribution and the member for Chaffey's contribution but more importantly their commitment, passion and dedication to seeing this project to completion. It is no small thing that the school community will have a consolidated site for delivery of future classes. I think it is right to say that in bringing the school together we bring the community together as well, and I appreciate very much the minister reflecting on the process for choosing a new name for a school; that, too, is no small thing.

It is right to acknowledge Emily Griggs whose passion for this project has been immense and whose commitment to seeing it through is also important, ably assisted by the governing council. There have, as the member for Chaffey remarked, been three principals who have been closely engaged in this project but many governing council members as well over many years.

It must also be said, and it should be recorded, that the member for Chaffey has been a constant advocate in close consultation and contact with the Minister for Education. Together most recently they visited the site, but what, of course, has not yet been recorded but must be is that the member for Chaffey has been a constant and abiding advocate to see these works to completion. They now will be completed, and we are looking forward to seeing the outcome of those works.

Motion carried.

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