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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-10-30 Daily Xml
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Melaleuca Park Primary School

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (15:08): Earlier this year, I spoke in this place about a remarkable group of students from Melaleuca Park Primary School.

Ms Pratt: Hear, hear!

Mr BELL: I think we might have a previous teacher in the house as well. Year 6 students, Evelyn, Taylor, Jack, Lacey and Brax, had invited me to tour their school and learn about their facilities.

During a school camp in Adelaide, they had the opportunity to visit Westbourne Park Primary School, to explore their facilities and learn about the learner agency program Westbourne Park students were participating in. Learner agency empowers students to develop a sense of identity and responsibility as they engage with their school community and play an active role in shaping their learning experiences.

Whilst touring Westbourne Park Primary School, the students noticed the toilet facilities and, as one student put it, 'Their toilets were outstanding—nice, private, and clean—nothing like ours.' Inspired by this, Evelyn, Taylor, Jack, Lacey, Brax and their fellow year 5 and 6 peers began a campaign to improve their own school's toilet facilities.

These students reached out to me. As part of my Future Mount Gambier 2.0 research, which included all public schools in our area, I went and visited their toilet facilities and the wider Melaleuca Park Primary School grounds. I have to say that their facilities were very ordinary. It looked like they had last been renovated in the 1970s, probably when they were built, and not much else had happened. The students took me through some of the issues, including privacy concerns, no frosting on windows, being able to step on the cistern and look over the partitions, no hand wash facilities and no hand dryers—basically a pretty ordinary state of affairs.

These students reached out not only to me but to the minister, Clare Scriven, and Mount Gambier education director, Adam Box. After my meeting with them, I took it on board to take their concerns to Minister Blair Boyer. After a number of scheduled meetings and delays, we also had the Deputy Chief Executive of the Department for Education, Ben Temperly, meet and videotape that meeting in my office, which the students played at their school.

Recently, I was thrilled to hear two pieces of good news. Firstly, the aforementioned students had been awarded the 2024 Governor's Civics Award for Schools for their tireless efforts advocating for better facilities at Melaleuca Park Primary School. The Governor's Civics Awards for Schools is a cross-sector initiative aimed at fostering students' skills and awareness as active, informed citizens in our multicultural and democratic society.

It is wonderful to see these students recognised for their dedication, leadership and commitment to improving their own school facilities. Their advocacy demonstrated not only their sense of responsibility but also the power of student voice in creating positive change.

This leads me to the second piece of good news. Last week I was informed that Melaleuca Park Primary School was one of three successful recipients of over $1 million in funding that was allocated to Mount Gambier schools as part of the government's school maintenance boost. This funding has been allocated for improvements to the toilet facilities, which I spoke about before, that these students had advocated so hard for. This is fantastic and an example of what students can accomplish when they take initiative, work together for positive change and engage the wider community.

Other recipients were Glenburnie Primary School, which will receive much-needed funding for disability access to their toilet facilities, and Gordon Education Centre, which will fund an outdoor facility for students with disabilities. All three of these were in the Future Mount Gambier 2.0 document and I really do want to thank both the deputy chief executive and the minister for not only the meeting but engaging actively with these students to show them that their voice really does matter.

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