Page 1983 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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MS BURCH: I thank Ms Berry for her interest. This government has a clear commitment to ensuring that we deliver the very best to our students, and we will maintain that commitment. In early childhood education, we have commenced the upgrade and expansion of the Appletree House Childcare and Education Centre in Wanniassa. This will add more places to the centre and ensure its compliance with the national quality framework. These works will be completed by next January.
Design work is underway to upgrade and extend the Bunyarra Children’s Centre in Chisholm and the Salem Children’s Centre in Kambah, with construction work expected to be completed in the middle of next year. Works to upgrade and extend Appletree, Bunyarra and Salem are in addition to the recent works that expanded the centre at Taylor Primary School and the Greenway Childcare and Education Centre. When completed, these works will provide an additional 91 childcare places in the Tuggeranong region. Indeed, just on Taylor, members will be aware that earlier this year the Taylor Primary School rectification and renovation created a fantastic new facility for the community in Kambah.
In addition, construction tenders will soon be called for the new Tuggeranong introductory English centre at Wanniassa Hills Primary School. This facility will support Tuggeranong primary school students newly arrived in Australia with intensive English tuition prior to returning to their “home” school.
We also have further planned works, which include a new purpose-built learning support unit at Gowrie Primary School, a virtual learning classroom at Calwell high, the upgrade of school toilets and the front administration area at Gilmore primary—that is in addition to the recent resurfacing of the car park there—a new security fence at Mawson primary, and a new audiovisual system for the hall at Bonython Primary School.
In conjunction with the ACT government’s healthy weight initiative, water refill stations will be installed at all schools during this financial year. So by mid next year all of our schools will have a water refill station. They have already been installed at Erindale and Lake Tuggeranong colleges, Namadgi School, Melrose high, Taylor primary and Isabella Plains Early Childhood School.
To support special education students, a new library and refurbishment of two classrooms at Malkara have been completed. This was in addition to the new hydrotherapy pool that was handed over to the school late last year.
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Ms Berry.
MS BERRY: Minister, could you tell the Assembly about the work being done at the Lanyon High School with its new virtual learning environment and what that will mean for students in the Lanyon valley.
MS BURCH: The virtual learning environment at Lanyon high was opened at the beginning of this year. It has provided a contemporary resource for innovative thinking and collaborative learning at the Lanyon High School and surrounding
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