Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to recognise a group of outstanding young students from Eumemmerring Primary School and Chalcot Lodge Primary School, who by their efforts and endeavours have won a major national championship in a new and an increasingly important field at the frontier of scientific research. These young students through their hard work and effort won not only the state RoboCup championship but also the RoboCup junior national championship in Canberra last month. This outstanding achievement came after months of fundraising and hard work from the 17 strong team of grade 3 and 4 students from Eumemmerring and Chalcot Lodge primary schools.

The Australian National University hosted the day of competition on 18 September 2010 which saw the students competing against eight other state finalists from across the country. I think it is important to note that the sponsorship of this championship came from organisations like World Teaching Aids, University of New South Wales Computing and the internet giant, Google Australia.

RoboCup Junior Australia is a project oriented educational initiative that supports local, regional and international robotic events for young students. Teams work in a cooperative and supportive environment, developed by volunteer groups of teachers, past competitors and industry members. The focus of RoboCup Junior Australia is the development of teamwork skills as well as technical skills in an environment of participation, fun and excitement.

In 2000, the first international RoboCup junior competition was held in Melbourne. Since then schools throughout the world like the ones in my electorate have participated in this exciting robotics competition, which has led some people to classify it as the ‘educational game of the new millennium’. What this means in reality is months of hard work assembling the robots, programming them and planning and choreographing the movements of the robots in a dance spectacular.

The winning performance by these two schools was called ‘Monster Mash’ and it was described in one of our great local newspapers as a ‘spookily themed dance’ that had robot zombies and skeletons, programmed and choreographed by students, dancing around gravestones and rising out of coffins. The enthusiasm and hard work of these students and of the teachers, Tamsin Bearsley and Melinda Browne, and the support of the parents and sponsors, culminated in this outstanding achievement. Tamsin said that it was done completely by the students. No teachers were allowed in the practice area. So students had to be completely organised and perform without any assistance from adults. Accordingly, Tamsin said, ‘It blew the teachers away. The students did a very good job’. Keep in mind, these are students from grades 3 and 4.

Both school communities are extremely proud of each of the students in the team. In winning the national championships, the students demonstrated excellent ICT skills and teamwork, and also applied the qualities of persistence, resilience, cooperation and drive—qualities that will stand them in good stead throughout their school and working lives.

The Principal of Chalcot Lodge Primary School, Kay Davies, and the Principal of Eumemmerring Primary School, Wayne MacDonald, are thrilled about their students’ achievements at state and national levels. Everyone is extremely proud of them. Mrs Davies and Mr MacDonald believe that it is a great credit to these primary schools for providing opportunities for the students to achieve and to shine, and acknowledge the dedicated and talented staff and the never-failing support of the parents, which make Chalcot Lodge Primary and Eumemmerring Primary the wonderful and successful schools that they are.

A celebration event was held today at Chalcot Lodge Primary School to mark their national success. At the celebration, many of the students commented on their achievement. For example, one of the students said, ‘It was exciting because we learnt how to make robots follow our commands.’ Another said, ‘It was great to work with friends and with robots. You get to try new things.’ All of them, I am proud to report, enjoyed their trip to Canberra.

This achievement by grades 3 and 4 students is outstanding. It is a fantastic national competition. In the time remaining to me, I acknowledge Alia De Savery, Chelsey Stanciu, Rawan Al Musawi, Joseph Halliwell, Shane Bird, Chelsea Gao, Carissa Peart, Blake Eims, Shannyn Colgan, Rylee De Boucherville, Bella De Boucherville, Kyle Hilbrich, Nick Jovicic, Blake Rudling, Savanna Bradley, Jordyn Shanahan and Daniella Susak. All of these outstanding young students from grades 3 and 4, I point out, are studying and reaching out in an area which is groundbreaking.

I congratulate the organisers of the event for giving the students the opportunity to pursue their dreams, and in particular offer congratulations to everyone associated with Chalcot Lodge and Eumemmerring primary schools.