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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 879 ..

MS TUCKER: My question is for Mr Stefaniak. Mr Stefaniak, could you tell the Assembly whether the School Without Walls has been closed or relocated to Dickson? What is your Government's policy on the transfer of Year 12 TER scores to the college of their choice after, one, closure of their current school, or, two, relocation of their current school?

MR STEFANIAK: Ms Tucker, as you may be aware, this week SWOW at Braddon and all the students there have been doing two things, effectively. The first one is ensuring that students have completed their unit assessments for term one and that their academic record for studies at SWOW, Braddon, is complete. Obviously, those assessments will go with the students to wherever they go. As you are well aware, Ms Tucker, it was always intended that SWOW, Braddon, would move to Dickson. I certainly hope a majority of students will in fact do so. However, the Friends of SWOW have said to me, as they no doubt have said to you, that there may well be a number of students who do not particularly want to go to Dickson.

You might also be aware, Ms Tucker, that a number of students who are doing Years 11 and 12 at SWOW, Braddon - and this has been the case for a while - have done a number of courses at other colleges as well. It may well be that they will choose to go there. Obviously, whatever they have done has to be taken into account and taken with them wherever they go - to somewhere other than Dickson or to Dickson. As well, Ms Tucker, as I hope you are aware, this week we have also been providing counselling for students regarding their future options for schooling. That will include facilitating a move to the program at Dickson College, for those who want to go there, or, if they do not want to go there, to another ACT high school or secondary college of their choice.

MS TUCKER: I will have to make my supplementary my original question. I asked: Have you closed SWOW or relocated it, and what is the Government's policy on transferring TER scores of students who choose to go to another college after their current school has been closed? What is your policy if they are moving because there has been a relocation? I want to know what happens. First of all, is it closed or relocated? Can you just give me a straight answer on that?

MR STEFANIAK: Ms Tucker, the Government always intended that the program at Braddon would be relocated to Dickson. Since then, we have had a court case and quite a lot of water has gone under the bridge. Unfortunately, I understand, there are probably a few students at SWOW, Braddon, who do not want to relocate to Dickson. You should also be aware, in relation to the transfer of students between schools, and at the college level especially, at Years 11 and 12, that each year there is considerable movement of students from one college to another. What they do at one college has to be taken into account so that they are not in any way disadvantaged in terms of the courses they undertake at another college. That applies to students who might leave SWOW, Braddon, for some college other than Dickson, or Dickson, or anywhere else in our system. That is just how it operates at Years 11 and 12. It is not an infrequent occurrence, and students do in fact move between colleges.

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