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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4127 ..

Ms Dundas made the comment that she did not want to congratulate the government because there is still more to be done and that each child should be able to achieve their potential. As I have already said, I agree with these statements. Each child should be able to achieve their total potential.

While this motion congratulates what we are doing and what is already happening, it is about more than just that. We need to recognise that our students are doing well and that we do do well in schools. Of course, we can always do more. However, we do have some very good students who participate and get involved, and were doing very well on those fronts.

I thought Ms Gallagher made a very good point about the variance in levels that teachers have to deal with. I certainly have memories of prac teaching. My second prac teaching session was incredibly interesting. I was able to experience the way in which an amazing teacher dealt with kids in year 4 at a primary school in Sydney. In that class he had incredibly bright students who were looking to apply for entry to Woollahra academic school, which was at that time one of the most prestigious year 5 and 6 schools in Sydney. Some of those kids were so far ahead of the rest of the students in the class that they almost had the ability to go on and become rocket scientists.

He also had students who were performing at the normal level. He had an ESL kid and a child who was classified as IM on the then intellectual disability rating. I think that rating has been changed so I cannot tell you what the assessment would be now. But certainly that student needed additional support because of her intellectual disability. I have to say that this teacher was amazing in the way he handled all those levels of kids.

There was not a day that I was in that classroom when he did not deal with things sensitively. He managed to keep all of the students in the classroom occupied. They did their maths and they did their English. They also did music and art on a regular basis and they worked with computers. They still had time to work on their extra projects and achieve what they could within their spelling levels. It was quite amazing to watch that teacher at work. I have to say that I have always had a great deal of admiration for that teacher and if I had continued on in teaching, that is what I would have aspired to be like.

Ms Tucker also made a couple of points that I would like to raise. She said that it is important that we do not slide towards league tables. I could not agree with that more—it is important that this does not happen. I also agree that success in schools is about more than just the results in schools. It is always about much more than that but we do need to know where our students are achieving so that we can make sure that we put additional funds into where they are needed. But league tables, of course, are not the way to deal with this matter.

Mr Speaker, as I have said, the issue of literacy and numeracy is an important one in our society. I appreciate the support of the Assembly today and I commend the motion to members.

Motion agreed to.

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