Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the nine Building the Education Revolution openings that I have done in schools in my local electorate since the start of April. It has been a very busy six weeks for these schools. The construction work for many of them was to be completed over Christmas, but some of those works were delayed because of the heavy rains and floods in Queensland. Others have spent the first term basically settling into their new facilities: putting the books into the new library, setting up the resource centre, putting in the finishes to the hall and landscaping around it. It is great that so many schools have now got these facilities up and operational.

Just last Sunday Grace Lutheran Primary School had an opening for their new library, the refurbishment of their classrooms and their new playground, but it is inaccurate to say that it was just in relation to those buildings. The school chose to use their BER funding and their National School Pride funding in conjunction with a block grant authority to rebuild the school basically from the ground up. It is incredible. Every classroom is new; there is a new tuckshop, a new library, new computer facilities and a new playground. It is just incredible and it is great to see what has been done. They chose to do the opening as part of their open day to showcase their school to the broader community. It was also their 40th anniversary, and Grace pioneers—people who were instrumental in starting the school 40 years ago—came back for the opening.

We also opened Norris Road State School's hall. They had a hall; we have extended the hall and put on multipurpose rooms and a new kitchen. This has made the hall much more versatile. We know that the hall is used by a lot of community groups, and this will allow those groups to use the hall for many more purposes. They have a completely refurbished library and new resource centre with an outdoor learning area. It is incredible to see the space they have now. But what is so important for the school is that they have a dedicated area for their computers as well. Deception Bay North State School has a brand-new hall and resource centre, incredible facilities. This school has already, in just one term, connected with the community. It has Indigenous programs running in the evening and dance classes. It has Mission Australia operating full time within one of the break-out rooms in the hall, helping and supporting the families of that school, which is just incredible. Aspley Special School has a brand-new hall. Redcliffe Special School has a new hall and resource centre. These kids used to sit on asphalt underneath a brick building, and they now have amazing facilities indoors, where they can do their assemblies, play sport and do so many other things.

Hercules Road State School has a new multipurpose hall to play sport in. Importantly, after-school care is now happening for the first time at this school because of these facilities. There is a brand-new library, which meant the old library could become the new admin block, so the staff have more space, and the old admin block has become the new special education unit. We forget that, because of the creation of a new building, everything expands and there are whole new places that they can use in the school.

St Joseph's Catholic Primary School has a brand-new multipurpose hall and also a refurbished library. Deception Bay Flexible Learning Centre is doing amazing things with those of our kids who have been disengaged from the main school system. A lot of them are young parents, and they have a parenting program going in. They have a great creche inside the flexible learning centre where the parents can leave their babies, and they can go and get their education. The work that this school is doing is incredible.

At Deception Bay State High School, we have just opened their brand-new language centre—their Japanese language centre. What is great about this is that this high school is partnering with primary schools, and primary school kids are coming in and learning Japanese in this new language centre, which includes a kitchen where they are preparing Japanese food and everything else. The work that has been done here is just incredible.

In the time I have left, I congratulate the principals, the P&Cs and the P&Fs for the great work that they did planning this and their ongoing work for fundraising. Builders, architects and project managers have done a fantastic job on these projects. They deserve to be acknowledged and thanked for their great work. Every school is thrilled with these facilities.