Tuesday, 3 October 2023

Parkdale Secondary College

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (19:16): (348) My adjournment this evening is to the Deputy Premier and Minister for Education. The action I seek is for the minister to give my community an update on the progress of Parkdale Secondary College’s redevelopment of their junior learning centre and come out to the school community to visit and hear of the wonderful progress and work done at Parkdale Secondary. This is an outstanding school in our community. It has some 1700 students, and it has excelled, like so many schools in our community.

Parkdale Secondary College is another example of how we are building the Education State. Whether it is the commitment we took to the 2018 election for Parkdale and Mordialloc colleges or the commitments that we made again for Mordialloc and Keysborough Gardens primary schools, we see the transformation happening. We do not want the first-rate education that our kids get at Parkdale Secondary College being hamstrung by second-class facilities. The redevelopment of the junior learning centre caters for that growth and development and gives them modern learning facilities for the future. I want to give a big shout-out to principal David Russell, his assistant Melissa Treverton, the educators, the education support staff and the wider Parkdale Secondary College community that make this school such an outstanding place of education and growth in our local community.

When we think of the journey that we have gone through in building works in our area, we are seeing upgrades at Chelsea Primary School. I just visited there this morning on the way through. They have got the steel beams going up. Chelsea Heights Primary School had their redevelopment stage – a $4.5 million upgrade. When we think about Yarrabah School, the specialist development school, every single corner of that school has been rebuilt, with more than $20 million invested. There is the hydrotherapy pool as well. The former Premier Andrews went out a number of times to Yarrabah School, and he literally put every single bit of effort into making that school modern and supportive for kids with additional needs. I look at Parktone – two stages of upgrades, their hall and their new library, which we opened just a few months ago. Mentone Park Primary School is just around the corner there; it had a staged upgrade as well. Then we see Keysborough Gardens. We literally rebuilt the new school there. In 2020 it was opened by the former member for Keysborough, Martin Pakula. As the student population grows – and it is estimated that school could have between 600 and 700 students in the next few years – we have got another stage of development for learning spaces and outdoor play space upgrades that will cater for another 150 students.

In every corner of the Mordialloc electorate and the Kingston community we are building the Education State – in early childhood, in TAFE and in our primary and secondary schools. I would love to have the Deputy Premier and education minister out to visit Parkdale Secondary College to hear about their vision and their values and to get an update on the wonderful redevelopment of the junior learning centre.