Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the Gladysdale Primary School leadership presentation at their school assembly. Gladysdale, in the upper Yarra Valley, is a small but very dynamic country school with a great history. The school was founded in 1918. It has just 78 students. It was my pleasure to attend their leadership presentation and present leadership certificates to all of the school leaders. I want to pay tribute to the new principal of Gladysdale Primary School, Mr John Shackleton, who has taken over this year from Mr Garry Lewis, who had been principal for a decade. I had the privilege of presenting certificates and badges to: the school captains, Natasha Elderhurst and Max Knight; each of the house captains, Bill Bishop, Jaclyn Ritchie, William Grace, Ellie Smith, Tyler Green, Jasmine Maassen, Boadie Morrissey and Emerson Woods; the ICT monitors, Sophie Liszka, Boadie Morrissey and Jesse Pride; the library monitors, Jodie Bishop and Karrie Firth; and SRC President Jaclyn Ritchie, Vice-President Emerson Woods, Secretary Natasha Elderhurst, treasurers Cody Dunne and Aidan McNiff, and fundraisers Tristan Charlwood, Ryan Eagleton and Zac Green.

Gladysdale Primary is a wonderful school with a great history, as I said. As is so often the case with small country schools, it is the community hub of that town. This is well exemplified each year by the Gladysdale apple and wine festival, which the school hosts exclusively as a fundraising event for the school. They have raised between $10,000 and $15,000 each year, weather permitting. The country style festival held on the first Sunday in May for the last 27 years celebrates the autumn apple and grape harvest in the Yarra Valley. Locals and visitors from further afield look forward each year to the festival and to the opportunity to go along to the school and contribute to a fundraising effort for the school. It was great to be there last Wednesday. I want to congratulate in this House all of those students who have taken on a leadership position and, again, the principal, Mr John Shackleton, who has taken on that important role this year at that great school.