Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): My adjournment is to the Minister for Education, and it concerns Westgarth Primary School in my electorate of Northcote. The action I seek is that the minister support the school’s submission for the upcoming state budget, seeking funding for much-needed capital works at Westgarth Primary. Westgarth Primary is nearing 100 years old. With this remarkable legacy of educating generations of inner-north children comes the challenges of ageing buildings and out-of-date learning spaces. Students and parents at Westgarth know these challenges well: leaky roofs, uneven playing surfaces, dilapidated portables and no space for the whole community to gather under one roof.
But if you know the inner north, you know that we are fighters and that we are creative and we rally together to get things done, and that is exactly what we are doing at Westgarth. Together with our parents, students and principal, Jo Wheeler, we have put together a compelling case for upgrades and a vision for Westgarth Primary that would deliver new modern classrooms, a full-size gym and a master plan for the future. Two weeks ago I joined Westgarth families for an info night to talk through our submission, and we launched a community petition. That petition now has almost 500 signatures. But that is not all—the students themselves have rallied. They have written a student petition of their own, and I want to read it out now to give you a sense of their passion. It reads:
Dear Mr. Merlino,
The students of Westgarth Primary School would like to let you know how important it is for us to have improved learning facilities such as a full-sized gym and new classrooms. We need a full-sized gym because we cannot play proper games such as basketball as the court is not competition sized and the outdoor court has large puddles in the middle. When it rains, we can’t have assemblies or watch performances as a whole school, because we do not have an undercover space large enough for everyone to fit. The portable classrooms are very old, some have leaking roofs and they are all very noisy which is impacting on our ability to hear and concentrate. Our students have all signed this petition to let you know how important this is for us. We are celebrating 100 years as a school in 2024 and it would be great to be able to show everyone what a wonderful school we have. Please consider funding Westgarth Primary School to make our school even better.
It is signed off by the year 6 school captains, Grace Stephens, Fergus Wilson-Ure, Lola Shelly and Simon Wrench. This student petition has been signed by 460 students so far, so we are now nearing 1000 signatures from my community calling for an upgrade to Westgarth Primary. The minister knows that fighting for our schools in the inner north has been a priority for me since day one, and I have been proud to see upgrades to almost every single one of them, because we need to give our kids the best opportunities to grow, thrive and learn in environments that are welcoming and inspiring. We need modern spaces that our excellent teachers can use to create and explore flexible ways of learning that cater to every student, no matter their ability or their interests. We have a wonderful vision for Westgarth Primary, something that can leave a legacy for the inner north and all the generations of kids who will come through that school. On behalf of my community I urge the minister to make our vision a reality.
