Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to extend my congratulations to one of the great schools in my electorate—Terranora Public School—which recently celebrated its centenary, a remarkable effort. These celebrations ran from Friday, 19 May to Sunday, 21 May. I was very honoured to have been invited to the official opening ceremony on Saturday, 21 May at the school as, together as a community, we celebrated 100 years of public education at the school.

What made the day so very special was the array of people joining in the celebration. There were students and teachers, both current and past; parents and grandparents, many of whom had attended Terranora school; and a large number of members of the local community from Terranora and the surrounds. In particular, it was wonderful to meet Mr Ed Parker, a man 95 years of age. Mr Parker was a former principal of the school. Indeed, Mr Parker was principal 50 years ago at Terranora school. He had in fact organised the celebrations which marked 50 years of the school in 1956, so it was great to see him here in 2006 celebrating the centenary.

Terranora Public School now has 330 students but, in Mr Parker’s day, it was a one-teacher school with only 13 students at one time, later rising to 51 students. Whilst the school and, indeed, the community of Terranora were much smaller in 1956, what remains the same is that the school really is the heart of the Terranora community, and this was evidenced by the large number of locals in attendance at the centenary celebrations.

It is indeed a very vocal, proud and community-minded village—one of the many throughout the electorate of Richmond. These centenary celebrations saw students involved in a variety of activities including a centenary costume parade, a tree planting and arranging a time capsule. The students and staff of the school organised this time capsule information and documents. It will be buried and hopefully in another 100 years the children at the school will learn about the things that happened at Terranora Public School in 2006. The students also participated in an array of activities including games and tasks that students would have participated in over the last 100 years, so they got a taste of what it was like at the school for their parents, their grandparents and, indeed, their great-grandparents.

I would like to commend all the current students who did presentations on the day: Tahlia Oakley from year 5, who presented a wonderful song, and the kindergarten class and their spectacular presentation. I would also like to acknowledge Amarlee Kelly, who introduced the official ceremony with the welcome to country; the centenary committee; the current principal, James Hackett; the P&C president, Heather Nuss; the school’s Education Director, Ron Hankin; and the Regional Director, Carol Carrigan. Terranora school’s motto is ‘Care and excellence’ and they certainly lived up to this motto during their fantastic centenary celebrations. I would like to extend my congratulations to everyone involved and particularly the centenary committee, who I know worked so hard over a long period to make sure this centenary celebration was the great success that it was.