Thursday, 24 March 2022

Catholic Education Week

Ms BLANDTHORN (Pascoe Vale) (10:03): Can I concur with the member for Carrum’s very powerful statement.

I would like today to acknowledge that last week was Catholic Education Week, culminating in the Mass of St Patrick on St Patrick’s Day at St Patrick’s Cathedral. A third of Victorian students are educated in Catholic and independent schools in Victoria. One in five students in Melbourne attends a Catholic school, and every baptised student in Melbourne, irrespective of their financial circumstances, is entitled to a Catholic education. There are 111 469 students across 290 schools, many of them in my electorate. Thousands of families within my community make that choice.

It was lovely to join the member for Sandringham and the member for Hawthorn at the feast mass of St Patrick with Catholic education, and it was great to be greeted by the students of Penola Catholic College in Glenroy and Broadmeadows and also the students of Mercy College in Coburg, particularly as a former student of Mercy myself. These are just two of the fantastic Catholic schools that serve my community and the families in my community so thoroughly, and we are so grateful for everything that the principals, the teachers, the support staff, the students and their families and the religious do in providing a Catholic education to thousands of students every day.

Can I also acknowledge the work that we are doing as a government in providing grants to rebuild Catholic schools right across our state, many of which are in my community.