Wednesday, 31 August 2022

Garfield Primary School

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (09:41): I speak today on behalf of Garfield Primary School, which spoke with Kardinia Communities for Children in relation to bushfires and lockdowns. They have put out a book, which people can get access to, which goes through some of the things and the concerns that these children faced during lockdowns. They are simple statements like:

We hated lockdown.

It was lonely.

We were sad.

Remote learning was hard.

Our parents couldn’t explain the work to us …

which I think many of us experienced. Maths in grade 6 seems to be a lot harder today than it was when I was in grade 6. They said:

Some of us only had a phone to work on.

When you look through this book, it goes through some of the issues that these children faced, including missing friends and the time at school that they missed out on. Some of the things they said were that it was no fun because they were stuck at home not seeing their friends and having no swimming. But I think it really hits a note when you see things like:

RIP

Pa

on the page or on gravestones in relation to people that lost their lives during that time of COVID.

However, there is also a silver lining when some of the children start to talk about the opportunities to go back to school, catching up with their friends, getting back on with life and getting back on with learning. They do say that with on-screen time the average was up by 46 per cent. Whilst as a parent, I go, ‘That’s just horrific’, some of the kids simply come back with:

We are loving that.

Some other things were good.

Friend smelling a flower.

The Sun is helping the flower to grow.

These kids have had to face some real challenges in Bunyip with fires and lockdowns. I just wanted to make sure that recognition of them is put into Parliament today.