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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-20 Daily Xml
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Lady George Kindergarten

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (15:17): The Lady George Kindergarten's highly respected director of six years, Mr Brett Gent, recently applied to continue his role; however, he was unsuccessful. According to the chair of the governing council, the recruitment process was unjust and imbalanced and failed to consider the perspective and wishes of the kindy community.

The Department for Education selection panel chair was highly critical of Mr Gent's application without justification. Her scores were significantly different from those of the rest of the panel, and Mr Gent was judged unfairly against standards that were not applied to other candidates. The chair of the governing council was deeply disturbed by the process and refused to sign the selection report. He has since written a detailed account of the process to both the Minister for Education and the chief executive of the department, neither of whom have addressed his concerns.

Mr Gent consistently received outstanding feedback on annual parent surveys and has the full support of the governing council. He is recognised and praised by education experts such as Senior South Australian of the Year Mr Mark LeMessurier, who publicly expressed outrage and deep disappointment in the way Mr Gent had been treated.

Mr Gent is greatly respected and appreciated by his staff too, who have reported he empowers them as individuals and as a team. He achieves outstanding academic and wellbeing outcomes and is a pillar of the community. Despite this, the Department for Education panel did not even put Mr Gent forward as a recommended candidate. The kindy community was shocked when they became aware that Mr Gent's application for reappointment as the kindy director had been unsuccessful.

Lady George Kindergarten parents say that Mr Gent is the best educator they have come across. He has nurtured their children and helped them to thrive. He has shown parents what they are capable of. He has shared his wisdom and his expertise to improve their parenting. He has created a caring and engaging community. He has created an exceptional learning environment and a program that develops children's education and wellbeing.

Two hundred and sixty-seven community members signed the online petition to retain Mr Gent as the kindy director within weeks of it being posted on social media—a strong community response demonstrating the impact Mr Gent has made on the past and present Lady George community. Community members wrote directly to the minister and the chief executive of the department and there were also dozens of messages of support from readers for Mr Gent after his story was published in The Advertiser, many questioning how such an inspiring educator could lose their job without any compelling rationale.

The minister instructed the department to review the process, which simply led to a brush-off letter from the CE on the minister's behalf claiming there was nothing wrong with the process. This is simply not good enough for the Lady George community. They have real and specific concerns about the recruitment process and how it was conducted and how any recruitment process that could see such an outstanding leader and educator pushed aside for no good reason should not be challenged.

Members of the Lady George community have told me that they support Mr Gent as an individual and his philosophy, his methods and his approach to early learning. They say he is a 21st century educator. He understands what children need to succeed. By focusing on the whole child, he builds their confidence and sense of identity, and he inspires a love of learning. He achieves phenomenal results, socially and academically, and he is a positive agent for change, someone who is truly committed to helping children and our community to thrive. The department is incredibly fortunate to have someone of his passion, expertise and commitment.

Today, we heard in an answer from the minister that he was satisfied with the internal review that was done by the department into the process, so I am calling for an external review of that process so we can, in fact, be satisfied with the outcome. Finally, I have some messages from the parents of Lady George Kindergarten:

Kindergarten is a pivotal year in children's lives and education. We want children to be nurtured and inspired. Brett Gent does this.

We want our community to continue to benefit from his kindness and dedication.

Brett's leadership has changed 100's of lives. He should have the opportunity to change 100's more and the Department should be paying attention to and learning from his outstanding results.

Brett and his approach represent what we want for our education system as parents, as a community and as constituents.

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