Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to tell parliament about the great work at the Australian African Foundation for Retention and Opportunity, which last week launched the Somali community education and information week at Flemington Primary School just around the corner from me. This group has come together to make sure that particularly parents of children who have come from the Somali community who attend the local primary and high schools are trained to be the best firsts teachers that they can be. Many of the students at the school are excelling. We now have captains from the Somali community at the Flemington Primary School, which is great, as Principal Lesley McCarthy told us. She also told us that many parents are not quite sure how best to support their children.

It came as a shock to know, for example, that students are meant to have 5,000 words of vocabulary by the time they start primary school. So we had a fantastic discussion, particularly led by the men from the Somali community, who got up and said, 'It is time for us, as men, to start reading to our young children and reading to our babies. Even though they might not understand it—they are like sponges that will absorb what is being said.' In that respect, I want to particularly acknowledge the work of Daud and also acknowledge the work of Nujum, from Flemington Primary School, who has done a wonderful job not only in cooking a fantastic meal for that evening but in making sure that parents feel like this school is their own, and that they are trained so that parents can be the best first teachers.