Thursday, 22 February 2024

Coburg North Primary School

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:27): (548) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to visit Coburg North 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 North Primary is situated along O’Hea Street, nestled between Bishop Street and Jersey Street and backing onto the magnificent Harmony Park. Originally part of Pascoe Vale Primary School for its first five years, Coburg North’s buildings were officially opened on 20 April 1937 by the Assistant Minister of Public Instruction John R Harris, with the school’s first head teacher being Henry Lanyon. In 1942 Coburg North officially became its own primary school, known as the Coburg North State School, with the first head teacher being Ruby Smith. When the school first opened it had very few buildings, with the original buildings including the cream brick building, two toilet blocks and two shelter sheds. It also had a boiler room run by coal, with the school connected to electricity in 1939. In 1975 the school underwent major renovations, which included a new library, language room, art and music room and amphitheatre. One of the most notable milestone events in the school’s history was in 2005, when the then Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, now His Majesty the King, visited Coburg North Primary School as part of a royal tour. Long live the republic.

Today Coburg North proudly continues to foster a thriving school community of curious, creative and engaged learners and a student cohort that is extremely civic minded and globally aware. As a proud product of the local primary school system myself, having gone to Coburg West over the other side of Bell Street, I am very keen to support Coburg North and all the primary schools as best I can. That is why I was pleased to visit Coburg North last year on 24 March to celebrate Ride2School Day but also to see the school’s completed $6.9 million facilities, which were made possible by the Victorian Labor government: a new science, technology, engineering and maths STEAM hub as well as a new multipurpose space, inclusive outdoor spaces, quiet spaces, sensory exploration, a pirate ship area, a kitchen garden and an outdoor classroom pergola.

I was pleased to have visited again on 5 September to hear presentations from students about the government’s need to take real action on climate change. I commend the students for having done great homework, including Bernie, Sonny, Dante, Viviene, Eva, Maya, Clea, Olive, Lottie, Georgia and Louise, for their amazing presentation. The principal Monika Gruss does an amazing job, especially with how she has leveraged the state government’s mental health resources by employing a full-time mental health coordinator to oversee the school’s wellbeing and inclusion programs and adoption of the resilience project. I acknowledge this year’s school captains Clea Sutton-Heath, Louise Hickson, Willa Cath and Ashling Ryan, as well as the teacher support staff and many others.

However, with demand for school facilities continuing to grow, with numbers growing from 114 ‍students in 2010 all the way up to 545 students in 2024, opportunities exist for ongoing investment at the school, including the school’s proposal to upgrade the school oval to provide for resurfacing, irrigation and drainage, which will play a major role in improving oval’s resilience to cater for increased demand and varying weather patterns throughout the year. I would welcome the minister visiting. They will give him a warm reception, just like they did to His Majesty the King.