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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-29 Daily Xml
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CHRIST THE KING SCHOOL

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON (15:44): Last week, year 5 students from Christ the King School, Warradale delivered presentations at a conference held at the Hyatt in Adelaide. The presentations were on environmental and climate change issues. I had the pleasure to hear them and they were excellent. The presentations indicated that the individuals in this particular class have a lot of talent and the school from which they come deserves to be recognised. The presentations were an interlude during a national Qualcon conference conducted by the Australian Organisation for Quality (South Australia) Inc.

Each student presented work on a particular topic via a Powerpoint presentation. Some were of particular weather events, such as Cyclone Katrina, and others were of phenomena such as the Asia tsunami. Another group of presentations related to steps the school was taking to reduce its carbon footprint; practical measures, such as recycling and water saving devices and the like, were all described. Other students presented artworks and the like.

The quality of the Powerpoint illustrations and the texts prepared by the students was excellent, and so were the artefacts; they were of a standard much older students would have been proud of. However, the really impressive feature was the students themselves. Each member of the class spoke briefly to the gathering on his or her topic. Their confidence, poise and capacity to communicate was, without exception, terrific. They are a credit to themselves, their parents and their school. The adult audience at the conference was duly impressed. Indeed, one could not but be impressed by such a display.

Christ the King School is a Catholic R-5 school. It used to cater for the traditional primary years of R-7 but changed its configuration as part of the 'middle school' revolution in schooling. I do not profess to be an expert in educational practices, but the relative maturity of this group of students provided me with a graphic example of the benefit of making year 5 the end of one phase of schooling; they really performed as a graduating class.

I commend their teacher, Ms Anne Marie Hall, and the Principal of Christ the King School, Ms Susan Steward, for their obvious support of the students, their enthusiasm and their leadership. I also commend Craig Ottoway, who is President of the Australian Organisation for Quality in South Australia, who was the conference organiser. He was creative enough to include a school presentation in the conference agenda, an innovation that was most warmly appreciated by delegates. By a happy coincidence, Craig is also the chair of the school council.

Education commentators, ideological warriors, employer groups, universities and the media would all have us believe that the standard of Australian schooling is on a steep decline. According to many of the reports one reads, most students emerging from our schools are barely literate or numerate. This is certainly not true of the students of Christ the King, Warradale. I suppose that many other schools with similarly dedicated students and teachers are performing just as well. However, today I particularly want to commend the members of the year 5 class at Christ the King, Warradale and wish each of them and their school good fortune in the future.

Time expired.

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