Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of my local schools is today concluding a fundraising effort which will provide an opportunity for its students to come to Canberra this year. For the last few months, the school community of Edney Primary School in High Wycombe has been raising money to enable its students to travel to Canberra this year, during Canberra's 100th birthday. Deputy Speaker, as you would be well aware, it is a big effort for any school to be able to travel to Canberra, but it is an even more costly and difficult effort for schools from my state of Western Australia to make it all the way to Canberra, which makes this achievement even greater.

The sport teacher at Edney Primary School, Ms Cathy Heyes, has organised a fundraising drive as part of the school's Keep Fit program, to encourage the students not only to have a healthy lifestyle but also to raise money for their trip to Canberra. The students—and I think this is a very innovative approach—have been running or walking laps around their school oval to collect tokens. These tokens are then converted into 'kilometres' for the flights to Canberra. On a Wednesday morning before school, students and parents have been running and walking as many laps around the school oval as possible. In their Physical Education classes, the students have also been running and walking laps around the oval, all in an effort to gain more tokens to contribute to their Canberra trip. At each assembly, an update is provided to the school community on how many laps have been walked or run and a map shows the students how many 'kilometres' they have covered in their walk to Canberra.

What is particularly excellent about this project is that it has brought the entire school community together to strive for an important combined goal. Not only are the students getting to take ownership of what they have achieved; they are also being rewarded through points for their school factions. The entire project has been a great way to help the students truly appreciate just how special such a trip is, and Edney Primary School should be congratulated on their efforts. All too often in life we take things for granted, but I can imagine that this experience will not be one that the students will forget any time soon. The teachers have reported back to me that the project is also helping the students to get to know more about Canberra and about Australia generally. I have no doubt that the students will learn even more when they make it to Canberra in person to visit parliament and the many other sites that our capital city has to offer, particularly with all of the information around its centenary year.

I congratulate the students who have taken up this project with great enthusiasm. I also thank the parents who have taken such an active involvement in it by walking and running laps with the students to help them accrue even more tokens. I know that the Principal, Shirley Duggan, and the rest of the leadership and staff at Edney Primary School have worked extremely hard to promote a close-knit and supportive school community. Finally, I offer my special thanks and congratulations to sports teacher, Cathy Heyes, whose coordination of this project has given the students a great learning opportunity. To the students, I say: Well done. You have achieved something quite amazing. Congratulations to you all.

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