Thursday, 19 October 2023

Pascoe Vale electorate secondary schools

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (17:30): (398) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is for the minister to visit my local secondary schools to see firsthand the record investments the Victorian Labor government has made since 2014 to upgrade local high schools and to learn more about the ongoing opportunities for further local secondary school investments. As I outlined in my first speech to Parliament, I am committed to doing everything I can to help continue lifting and improving the quality of local secondary education options for families living across Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West. As someone who is the proud product of our local education system, and now as a local dad, I know how much local families value the quality of local secondary education, because along with our local kinders and primary schools it is our local secondary schools that play the next most important role in supporting the lifelong learning journey and in shaping and inspiring the minds and future life chances of what we value and care for the most – children and young people. As more young families and children continue to call the Pascoe Vale electorate home, it is critical that we continue to invest to upgrade and improve the facilities and resources of local secondary schools.

I begin with Coburg High School, which first reopened as a full year 7 to year 12 high school in 2015 with around just 170 students in year 7. Coburg High has now grown to become the biggest secondary school situated within the Pascoe Vale electorate. It consists of over 1200 students today and is on track to reach 1400 students by 2027. Following the completion of the school’s master plan, I was proud, along with the member for Preston and the member for Northcote, to have secured and announced a record $17.8 million investment towards the construction of a new technology hub for Coburg High, which we have just recently appointed the architects to design – Richard, Stephanie and Rob from Bryant Alsop Architects – and which the school community very much looks forward to being completed.

Strathmore Secondary College’s catchment also supports the secondary education aspirations of many families in the Pascoe Vale suburb. With an enrolment of 1900 students and growing, I was pleased, with the member for Essendon, to visit the magnificent new $21.1 million three-storey building with general-purpose classrooms for specialist facilities in science, chemistry, physics, arts, food and technology.

Pascoe Vale Girls has an enrolment of around 880 students and services the Pascoe Vale community as well as the broader northern suburbs, including the electorate of the member for Greenvale and the member for Broadmeadows and others, and has been providing fantastic quality education for women and girls since 1956. With over $14.4 million invested by Labor since 2014 to upgrade Pascoe Vale Girls, including through the new arts and technology centre, which is currently under construction, the school will be leaving a lasting legacy for many years to come.

Combined with another $10 million previously invested to deliver new facilities at Glenroy secondary college and most recently $14.5 million to construct a new science, tech and creative facility at John Fawkner College, the member for Broadmeadows and I and the rest of us from across the north are advocating very hard to secure this and other funding going forward for local secondary schools, but along with these investments of course there is more work to do. That is why we are delivering on a Merri-bek North education plan that will help provide the pathway for future investment and support so all students can thrive.