Page 1746 - Week 06 - Thursday, 3 June 2021
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support and care that young people and their families need even when their behaviour is challenging.
For success in education and in achieving a healthy life with strong social relationships and community engagement, keeping kids out of prison and well supported in the community is one of my highest priorities.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Early Childhood Development, Minister for Education and Youth Affairs, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (4.37): I thank Mrs Kikkert for bringing on this motion today. I will be focusing my comments today on the Murrumbidgee Education and Training Centre, as well as our flexible education offerings for children who are enrolled in our public schools in the ACT.
For all of the young people in Bimberi who access educational training through the Murrumbidgee Education and Training Centre, and from my visits out there, it has always been something that they look forward to and a very positive experience. The well-qualified teaching workforce out there works very closely with the youth workers to make sure that they can put together a really personalised educational offering for the young people at Bimberi. They make sure that they all have individual learning plans, developed together with the students, that have the detail, scaffolding and supports that they need to make sure that they continue to be engaged in their education in a way that works for them.
The Murrumbidgee school provides schooling based on the Australian curriculum, of course, and has all of the recognised training courses. The significant focus on supporting young people to successfully transition back to their school outside of Bimberi so that they stay engaged is really important and something that the ACT Education Directorate puts particular emphasis on and care into.
When I have had the chance to visit the Murrumbidgee school and have a chat with some of the students, I have been able to hear and learn from them about the projects that they have been developing in their classes and the pride in their work that they have achieved. It has been very clear to me that they have an aspiration and a plan for their educational journey. The Murrumbidgee centre at Bimberi provides them with the opportunities to go on that journey to pursue their passion and to support them in doing that, alongside the youth workers at the Bimberi centre as well.
Our future of education strategy seeks to ensure that students, regardless of their background, where they come from or whatever is going on in their lives, feel welcomed and are respected, supported and valued in their school communities—whatever that community looks like—and that the supports and programs are in place to address individual student need, including personalised education and social and psychological wellbeing, should those needs arise.
There are a range of supports in place to ensure that students have access to a great education. We have a school psychology service. All ACT public schools have access to a school psychologist. School psychologists are part of the directorate’s
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