Page 2234 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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MS BERRY: The Education Directorate and the AFP are working together on that process.
MRS KIKKERT: Minister, how can parents of our schoolchildren have confidence that what you are doing will protect their kids in the future?
MS BERRY: A number of communications have gone out to our parent and school communities to reassure them that the appropriate action has been taken to secure the email networks within our Google systems across our schools. I am a parent of children in the public school system as well and have children who were affected by this email issue. I am assured that the process that has been followed by the Education Directorate, with support and advice from Foresight, is ensuring that this system remains accessible but is also secure so that students can continue to get on with technology-based learning.
Government—schools policy
MR GUPTA: My question is to the Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development. Minister, how has the ACT government delivered new and better schools over the last four years?
MS BERRY: I thank Mr Gupta for the question. Last year the ACT government opened Margaret Hendry School in Taylor. Margaret Hendry was one of the ACT’s first carbon-neutral schools, and it is catering for a growing young community in our city’s north, with around 600 students. Last year the government completed the $25.7 million upgrade at Belconnen High School, transforming it into something that is nearly unrecognisable from the school that it was in the past. These staged modernisation works include refurbished classrooms as well as admin areas and roof replacements.
Over this term the government has delivered two future skills academies, Mungga-iri Jingee for the south side and Dhawura Ngadjung for the north side. These academies are high quality facilities where both students and teachers can develop skills that are transferrable across many of our fastest growing occupations.
We have not just been building new schools; we have been upgrading our schools. Just this year alone, a new roof was installed at Calwell High. There is a new outdoor hard court for Weetangera Primary. There is a new outdoor play area and shade sails for Cranleigh, and there is a new evaporative cooling system in the gym at Gungahlin College. Namadgi has a car park upgrade, with improved classroom spaces and new paint on the gym and front sign. Duffy Primary School saw new turf and irrigation. There are new admin and support areas at Lanyon High. There are roof upgrades at Charnwood-Dunlop Primary School as well as a new outdoor garden play space.
They are just a small number of the upgrades and programs that have been occurring across our schools across the ACT. In addition to that, there is the investment that the ACT government has made in our schools during COVID-19 to ensure that people remain employed but that our schools get the repairs and maintenance that they need.
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