Thursday, 2 November 2023

Coburg Primary School

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:18): (426) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to visit Coburg Primary School to meet with the local school community and hear firsthand about their vision to support learning and wellbeing outcomes for local students over coming years.

Coburg Primary School is actually one of the oldest and longest running public schools in the state’s history and indeed even predates the building and opening of this Victorian Parliament in 1856. The school was first opened on 2 May 1853 on Bell Street and was originally known as the Pentridge National School, the school next to the prison. The first head teacher was William Bryant, and classes for pupils were first held in a large tent. Tents were eventually replaced by a building with four rooms and a hall, with local residents at the time contributing to most of the costs. The school became a common school in 1862 and went on to become a state school between 1873 and 1878, being renamed Coburg State School. By 1909 the school’s numbers had continued to swell to 730. As a result an additional site was purchased, with the school to this very day still spread across the two campuses, north and south, over Bell Street, with the preps to grade 1s learning out of the junior southern campus and grades 2 to 6 learning out of the senior northern campus. By 1920 the average number of pupils attending the school was 1000. In 1924 the renovated then new senior school buildings were opened by the Honourable Alexander Peacock, a former Victorian Premier and education minister. The school was renamed Coburg Primary School in 1970. For 170 years it has continued to educate generations of local young students by preparing them for their careers and lifelong learning journeys ahead.

As a proud product of our local public primary school system, having attended Coburg West Primary, I am keen to do what I can to support all of our primary schools in the area. That is why I am so pleased to have visited Coburg Primary School on 26 October to meet with the wonderful school community, which today is made up of 350 students and is on track to grow to more than 380 by 2024, next year. I was absolutely delighted to meet with school captains Edie Jean Feeley, Narmin Georges, Lula Keegan and Felix Wright, all of whom do a magnificent job of representing their school community. I was also pleased to have met with school council president Jacob Kantor, vice-president Debbie Rando and principal Matt Kerby, who alongside all of the school’s teachers, support staff and volunteers do a magnificent job of facilitating a very warm, vibrant and beautiful school community.

As part of the visit I was very pleased to learn about previous Victorian Labor government investments, including $150,000 in school pride and sports funding and $195,000 provided via the essential maintenance program. I was also very happy to be briefed on the school’s current needs and future opportunities for investment by the state government to support their vision to continue accommodating their growing numbers. I was particularly impressed to learn about the school leveraging the mental health officer resources that the state government is investing in at the school, which principal Matt Kerby, to his credit, has really diversified, including through engaging a psychologist, a speech pathologist, an occupational therapist and other supports to foster resilience and inclusivity and to respond to neurodiversity needs. As the anchor primary school in the central Coburg precinct, the school is doing a great job of building partnerships, including with Coburg High School through the new $17.8 million technology hub it is going to partner with them on.