Tuesday, 13 May 2025

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:41): (1597) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action that I seek is for the minister to ensure that the 2025–26 state budget provides full funding to complete the buildings and facilities at Banmira Specialist School in Shepparton so that all students can be on the one campus. When the controversial decision was made to close Shepparton’s four public secondary schools and merge them into a single campus mega school, the community made it clear that they wanted the old school sites to be retained for educational purposes. The site of the former Wanganui Park Secondary College on Parkside Drive was chosen to become the new home for the Verney Road School, a specialist school providing learning opportunities for students aged three to 18 with intellectual disabilities. Verney Road School was built in 1999 and designed for 75 students, but it has grown rapidly and now has over 250 students and over a hundred staff. It needed a bigger home, and the Victorian government promised $24 million in the 2022–23 state budget to upgrade the old Parkside Drive site and make it fit for the students moving over from Verney Road to the new school, now called Banmira Specialist School.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Banmira Specialist School, and I was delighted to see students eagerly learning in their new, modern, state-of-the-art classrooms, guided by wonderful teachers who are helping them to realise their full potential and showing them that they are valued and respected. During my visit one thing troubled me: a fence has been constructed to cordon off almost half the school, where old classrooms are boarded up awaiting further funding to complete the school. The state government’s failure to provide funding to upgrade the entire school has meant that only primary school and early years students have been able to move across from Verney Road to the Parkside Drive campus. These students are enjoying their bright new classrooms, but the secondary school students are stuck back in the old buildings at the Verney Road site. Many of the primary students who are enjoying the new facilities this year will have to move back to the older buildings when they reach their secondary school years.

The students who attend Banmira Specialist School need consistency. Making them transition from Verney Road to Parkside Drive and then back to Verney Road will have a negative impact on their sense of stability and could hinder their learning, which is the last thing we want for these vulnerable children. The delivery of classes across two sites presents many challenges for the school, including financial challenges due to inefficiencies, and creates real, practical challenges for staff, who need to shuttle back and forth between the two sites that are 3.5 kilometres apart, creating delays and disruptions to instructional time. It is essential that the 2025–26 state budget provides full funding for the completion of the Parkside Drive campus so that all the Banmira students and staff can be on one single site enjoying the educational, technological and quality learning environment that these students deserve.