Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year marks the centenary of my former primary school, St Michael's Catholic Primary School in Daceyville in my community. I wish to congratulate all the staff, students and parents for a wonderful year of centenary celebrations. Catholic education began in Daceyville on 18 May in 1914 when three sisters, daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, set out on foot from the convent in Kensington. They walked a couple of kilometres to establish the first classroom in Daceyville. They began the school that morning with 42 boys and girls from just two ethnic backgrounds. Today, the school has 204 students from close to 50 multicultural backgrounds and has earned a reputation as a place full of friendship, joy, discovery and challenge and as a place for children to dream of new possibilities.

To celebrate their centenary the school organised a calendar of events, including a walk in the footsteps of the school's founders, a wonderful performance at South Sydney Juniors, entitled The Power of a Dream, which I was fortunate to attend, and a celebratory mass earlier in the year. They also undertook special activities involving the number 100, such as good old-fashioned maths games, musical games, crafts and letter writing. I congratulate St Michael's Catholic Primary School, its students and faculty and the broader school community on reaching this milestone and wish them all the very best for the future.