Released 25/07/2017
It was great to welcome kindergarten students starting their first day of school at Palmerston District Primary School today.
I enjoyed meeting parents and carers, as well as their children as they begin their education journey into ‘big school’ and beyond. The first day at school can be a nervous but exciting moment for parents as much as students, so it was nice to be able to meet with them and share that experience.
Today was an extra special day at Palmerston District Primary School, with two sets of twins beginning in kindergarten this year. I can imagine it would have been a busy morning for them and their families, but I am sure they will settle into their lovely new school very quickly.
I learned today that Palmerston District Primary School has a wide mixture of families from different backgrounds and cultures, with at least 45 different heritage languages used amongst the school community. It is also the location of the Gungahlin Primary Introductory English Centre, where students with limited to no English language ability study English before they graduate and join a mainstream classroom. It is such a great environment here for those students to not only formally learn English through the centre but also through their interaction with warm and welcoming mainstream students.
The new kindergarten students attending Palmerston District Primary School today are part of around 8,300 children starting at pre-school or kindergarten, and will join roughly 46,000 public school students across our quality 87 public schools.
I am excited to begin my first full year as Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development and am passionate that all children in the ACT have access to a quality and inclusive education system all the way through from early childhood to college.
Over the coming year, I am aiming to take our high achieving education system even further with a big focus on hearing the community’s voice in what school education system we want for the future, looking at ways we can improve equity and access to education in the critical early learning years, and providing scholarships to train teachers in key areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
I was also delighted to hand out the new edition of the popular guide Starting School: A Guide for Families that provides useful and important information for parents and carers as their children begin formal schooling. I am confident parents and carers will find the advice and practical tips in this guide useful and all members of the family can help prepare children for those first few weeks of preschool and kindergarten.
The guide will be available from Canberra public schools and can be viewed on the Education Directorate website at www.education.act.gov.au
I wish all the students, teachers and staff a great first day of term and a fantastic 2017 school year.
- Statement ends -
Yvette Berry, MLA | Media Releases
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