Jon Sullivan (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How interesting it was to hear one speaker in the adjournment debate criticise the government for not providing their pension increases while the next speaker on that side tells the story of two pensioners in his electorate who would not be recipients of the pension increases that the opposition brought forward. But I do not want to talk about those issues tonight. I want to talk about the Burpengary State School, in my electorate.

Last Friday I had the very great pleasure of visiting Burpengary State School to present the school with an Australian flag to replace one that had been stolen from their flagpole the previous week. I cannot understand why somebody would want to steal an Australian flag from a school, but somebody did and so a visit was arranged.

The Burpengary State School has served the local community for over 128 years. It is an integral part of the community, although when it was established one can reasonably assume it would have been in the middle of farmlands. The school was established in the 1880s by families who would rightly have been considered as pioneers, particularly in that area, as it would have been quite a distance from Brisbane then. But these parents were pioneers in another sense. Back in 1880 they understood that their children’s lives would be made better by receiving a decent education. That is of course still true today, and it is why this government is proceeding with an education revolution to make sure that children today get a better education.

While I do not really want to single out any of the students of the school, I thought it was fitting that for this year, the 129th year of the school, one of the school captains is a descendent of the pioneering families from the area, the Litherlands.

Essentially a small rural school for 100 years, the urban growth that has happened in my part of the world in the last 20 years has seen this become one of the biggest primary schools in Queensland. I know that the school principal, Ms Paula Passi, is particularly proud of the school’s heritage. In keeping with that heritage, the school’s mission today is to ensure that each and every one of its more than 1,100 students receives the best possible education they can provide. Also in keeping with that heritage, the school has a strong and vibrant P&C, which is heavily involved in the school and helps to provide a number of the facilities that the school needs.

By coincidence, the school received its NAPLAN, or National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy, the day before my visit. The results are worthy of giving an airing here tonight. Across the three grades tested—years 3, 5 and 7—Burpengary State School achieved results above the national benchmark in all of the five areas assessed—reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy—except for one of the years’ groups falling just short of that national benchmark in reading. Let me repeat that: in 14 of the 15 matters, Burpengary State School was ahead of the national results and significantly ahead of the results achieved for Queensland in all 15. Clearly, Ms Passi and her staff are doing an excellent job in the area of fundamental primary school education.

I was also particularly impressed by the quality of the two school bands on display at the senior parade. Music is an interest of mine, bordering on a passion in some areas, and I was particularly impressed to learn that the students playing in the junior school band had only begun to learn their instruments this year. On the parade I was impressed by the number of year 5 students who received their citizenship certificates, which meant that they had spent the whole term without running into trouble with any of their teachers; by the number of students who received awards for their work in the national science competition; and by the number of high-achieving athletes, whose efforts were acknowledged at the school. I think it is also worth noting that the school will shortly be able to capture from their roofs in excess of a million litres of water, which they can store in tanks and transfer as needed to the school oval, which was built with Investing in Our Schools funding, to make sure that that oval is properly watered at all times. This is a great school serving a great community in what I believe is the greatest part of our country. (Time expired)