Wednesday, 19 February 2025

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (09:43): We have world-class state schools in Victoria, don’t we? They are absolutely fantastic, and I am really proud that South Melbourne Primary School in particular ‍– but not only, because all our state schools are fantastic – got a shout-out on the telly; yes, they did. A special shout-out to principal Noel Creece. He is so passionate and so caring. He was talking all about the science of learning and evidence-based teaching. What did they get the shout-out for? Outstanding NAPLAN results. They can really see the improvement that has come through their school by applying systematic synthetic phonics in every classroom. This has been the turning point for that school but also a real ‘team’ focus in the school, and it is so wonderful. They are getting – actually all students in Victoria are getting – literacy skills for life.

And I should say that we are making best practice common practice in our Education State, with new resources to support student literacy and systematic synthetic phonics in every classroom. The Minister for Education did announce just in December $5 million in funding for primary schools to fast-track the transition to the mandated Victorian reading approach a year earlier. We can see with South Melbourne Primary, with those outstanding results, all the more reason to fast-track systematic synthetic phonics in every classroom.