Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday, 27 June I had the great honour of officially opening the new multipurpose hall at Rangeview Primary School in the suburb of Mitcham, which is right in the middle of my electorate of Deakin. Liz Barr, the Principal, and Ian Buston, the Assistant Principal, were on hand to greet me, along with the school captains, Joel Fung and Jacinta Leed. The previous principal, Jack Fisher, was unable to attend the ceremony but conveyed his apologies. I spent a lot of time talking with Jack about the design of the building during 2009 and 2010 to make sure it was what the school wanted and also that it fitted in with the area and took account of the residents. Although it was a long process, we got to the point where the school got exactly what they wanted, which was what we were after the whole time.

Also in attendance on the day were Chris Cotching, the school principal prior to Jack Fisher, and his predecessor, Hugh McCartney. That meant that we had every school principal since the school was merged from three into one recognised at the ceremony. We also had the President of the School Council, Lloyd Lazaro, and the former school council president, Tim Purkis—not forgetting that we had there all of the staff, more than 550 students and many parents as well. It was a very big event.

All of those people—all of the students, all of the staff and particularly all of the school councillors and the principals—have done so much along the way to ensure that the school has the result they were after. In fact, it is fair to say that it would not have happened without their help. Rangeview is a great local school and has a proud history of excellence in education and it has grown to become one of the biggest and most popular government schools within the electorate of Deakin. In fact, if you are not in the zone, it is particularly hard to now get into the school. At the opening ceremony, the school band and choir put on a great performance and a skipping troupe finished off the ceremony. I have not seen kids do that sort of thing with skipping ropes before, but it was very impressive. I am sure that some of them will go to feature in a TV show or two if they can keep that type of effort up.

Rangeview is yet another one of these schools in Victoria that, although large and growing, had nowhere to hold school assemblies. I have been to Rangeview on many occasions and they have had to hold school assemblies outside. I have also attended the school on days on which there has not been a school assembly because it has been cancelled due to rain. Now with a full-size hall they can fit the whole school within that hall and have their assemblies at any time they like, as well as using it for sport, music and after-school-hours care. It is a great addition to the school. I am sure that it is something that will be there for many years to come not only for the students who are currently there but hopefully for students from generations well beyond them. I congratulate Rangeview Primary School on their great result under the P21 and encourage more schools to take advantage of that.