Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

( I rise today to update the House on the great work of one of the schools in my electorate—the Tallebudgera State School. They are doing some outstanding work in technology. I would particularly like to speak about some of the work that they are doing in computer coding.

By way of background, Tellabudgera State School is, in my view, an outstanding school. It has terrific staff, terrific students and a very engaged parent community. Last Friday I took the opportunity to visit the school to attend one of the classes. It was actually the computer coding club that the school runs twice a week. It is a before-school activity, so it is extracurricular activity that is purely voluntary for those students who wish to attend. Generally about 20 students, sometimes up to 30, attend the club before school and learn about computer coding. The students who attend range quite widely in age and ability. Some entry-level students come along to learn the basics of coding, and others, who have been going along for quite some time and do a lot of work, particularly in their own time, have developed great skills in more advanced computer coding.

The club was the brainchild of one of the parents, Jason Vearing, about three years ago. He approached the school and talked about his belief that coding was going to be needed into the future. He had skills in that area, so he offered to participate at the school to help start up a computer coding club. The school really welcomed that opportunity and took it up. The IT teacher, Timm Hayer, under the leadership of the principal, Toni Robinson, is now very much engaged in helping these students build their computer coding skills.

When I went to along last Friday, two of the students, Kate and Kira, worked with me in helping me write a program. I may have required a little bit more assistance than some of the students in their class, but I had a fantastic time. Those two girls did a terrific job of guiding me through the program that they were using, which was Scratch, developed by MIT. It is available free online for anyone who would like to have a go at writing a program. I do encourage you to go online and have a look at that. It was a terrific opportunity for me to learn firsthand from the students what they are learning in their computer club and to improve my own skills, because, quite frankly, I had not tried to write a game before, so I learnt something that day. It was a great opportunity. A big congratulations to Tellabudgera State School, which is certainly leading the way in technology. I congratulate you. Keep up the good work.