Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm going to use this opportunity to focus on some of the wonderful positive events in my electorate over the past little while. Last month I had the opportunity to attend the ninth annual Paddock to Plate Luncheon hosted by Beenleigh State High School, led by their principal, Matt Morgan. In 2015, their principal, Matt O'Hanlon organised the Beenleigh State High School's first Paddock to Plate Luncheon, with around 80 guests at the local Beenleigh PCYC. Since then, things have taken off, with the luncheon becoming the highlight of the school year for the hospitality and agriculture students. This year's lunch was a sellout in the school's brand-new sports hall. Just in case you're not sure, when they say 'paddock to plate', that is exactly what they mean. The school supplied its own beef, pork, lamb, honey, strawberries and vegetables for this year's menu.

The Paddock to Plate Luncheon is an outstanding group effort led by the head of both agricultural science and business, Peta Lenane, along with the head of hospitality, Stephanie Brocklehurst. Together with their teams, they provide a level of hospitality education and training that is described as unrivalled in Queensland. Internationally renowned celebrity chefs Dayan Hartill-Law and Grant Perry both worked with the students, sharing their vast experience and standards of excellence in planning and preparing dishes for the event. This event has become the school's largest annual fundraiser for the school P&C Committee. The work done by the school in a whole range of areas is a tremendous testament to everybody involved. Congratulations to all for another fantastic Paddock to Plate Luncheon event.

Last night I had the privilege of attending the 2023 Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards presented by Schools Plus, which recognised the wonderful work our teachers do in schools right across our country, all focused on ensuring that the programs they run ensure that our children succeed and achieve their best potential. This year there were 12 outstanding teachers who received a 12-month teaching fellowship, including funds for their school to share their impact. The fellowship is a unique professional learning experience which includes opportunities to engage with, and learn from, leading educational experts and a group study tour to a high- performing education system.

My electorate of Forde was extremely lucky in that we had two outstanding teachers who were recipients of these teaching fellowships: Sara Curtis from Marsden State High School and Kiri Griffith from Loganlea State High School. Sara is the Head of Department for Teaching and Learning Programs and been instrumental in creating and leading successful programs to support teachers at all levels, including beginning and early career teachers, mentors, teachers returning from extended leave, and highly accomplished and lead teachers. For the last two years, Marsden and Sara's team have been recognised in the Australian HR Awards for best professional learning and graduate support—the first school to win this award against major corporate finalists. Kiri is the Deputy Principal of Loganlea State High School and has led numerous initiatives to help nurture community pride and enhance student opportunities. One of the programs Kiri led, called 'Uplift Logan', helped build confidence and leadership capabilities for students through unique mentoring partnerships developed with the local community. Kiri's work showcases the power of community partnerships within the school and the ability of great teachers to change children's lives.

The second annual Early Career Teaching Awards were also presented last night, which recognised and encouraged great teachers with five years or less in the teaching profession. Ten early career teachers received a scholarship, and, through this, they receive funding for their professional development and participation in mentoring and leadership programs, including a group study tour to a high-performing education system. Abbey Tamsen from Marsden State High School was presented with this esteemed award. In her short career as a teacher, Abbey has helped develop important resources and training programs for teachers that help the students and the school achieve. Abbey has worked on strategies for managing behaviour, implementing technology in the classroom and producing handbooks to support preservice teachers and their supervisors. Abbey has also managed and inducted over 600 pre-service teachers in the past year, as well as organised more than 30 professional development opportunities. Can I once again say to these three amazing teachers: congratulations and thank you for everything that you do in our local schools and I wish you all the very best for the future.

As we all know, September marks the end of the football season, whether it be league, union, football or AFL, and many of our local teams in the Forde electorate tasted success over this past season. Congratulations to the Beenleigh Junior Rugby League Club on their tremendous success this year, with their under-18 side being unstoppable in their march to the premiership, taking out the grand final 26 to 12. Congratulations also to Waterford Demons Rugby League Club's open men's team, who were crowned premiers in a nailbiting final over North Stradbroke 26 to 25. Waterford's junior teams also had impressive seasons, with the U18 Girl's side runners-up in their campaign, just being pipped by Burleigh for the premiership.

The Mustangs Brothers Rugby League Football Club kept the great results going with their SEQ Reserve Grade women's side being crowned champions for 2023, beating out the Brisbane Natives in their grand final. Down the road at Ormeau, the Ormeau Shearers women's team had a terrific season making the SEQ Holcim Cup grand final, sadly coming up short against Goodna. The result was repeated for their U16 Division 2 boys, who also just missed out on a grand final win with a close loss to Southport. But, for both teams, it was an amazing result. The Eagleby Giants Junior Rugby League Football Club and Yatala Rams Junior Rugby Union Club also must be commended for their efforts through all age groups this past season.

In football, the world game, our local teams have overachieved with brilliant seasons from not one but three clubs. The past weekend saw the Football Queensland Premier League 1 men's semifinal, where Logan Lightning FC fought hard but came up just short, 3-2, in their match against Wynnum—an outstanding achievement. We also had the local grudge match in the under-23 Football Queensland Premier League 6 grand final between Bethania Rams and Park Ridge Panthers, and congratulations to Bethania Rams on their win and to the runners-up, Park Ridge, also on a tremendous campaign. Last but not least, an amazing game on Saturday saw Ormeau Football Club's men's team not only take out the FQPL 4 title, 4-0, but also succeeded in earning promotion to the FQPL 3 division for next season.

To our Aussie Rules teams: the Ormeau Bulldogs U15 Girls claimed their premiership in a tight grand final, while the Beenleigh Buffaloes and Park Ridge Pirates had their own successes, with the Beenleigh Buffaloes women's side taking out the pride cup in July.

To the men's sides for all of three of those clubs in hard-fought seasons that maybe didn't go as well as they would have hoped and to all of our players, coaches, staff, volunteers, referees and all of the other officials: thank you for your tremendous efforts throughout this season to ensure that our sporting clubs can play their fixtures. Thank you to the grounds people for the work you do to present the fields every week so that our players can get out, play and enjoy a game of whatever code, knowing that the grounds are in good condition and it's safe for them to play. Thank you for all of your efforts. I hope you enjoy the off season. We now look forward to the cricket season. The other day we also launched the new A-League football season. But thank you to everybody involved in all of our clubs for the terrific work that you do.