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Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Page: 10158

Mr SYMON (Deakin) (09:33): I recently had the great pleasure of attending the opening of the new P21 buildings that have been put up at Ringwood Heights Primary School in my electorate and I would like to say few words about that today. The project that was undertaken by Ringwood Heights is what is known locally as a Maroondah template, and it broke away from the state government templates that are used in so many schools in Victoria. By doing that, many schools in Maroondah were able to upsize and get a larger building that actually suited the school.

In the case of Ringwood Heights, as is the case with many schools in my electorate, the school was built about 50 years ago and had no indoor assembly area. I have been to many assemblies at that school outside or half-assemblies in a crammed room with just a couple of grades. It just simply does not work. The school now has a brand-new building and a full-size basketball court that already has an arrangement with the local basketball club to use after hours. It is a great facility for the school not only, as I say, for after hours but especially during hours. Nearly 270 children attend Ringwood Heights, and it is a school that needs a lot more work done on it. Again, that is very common to schools in my part of Melbourne. They are great schools, especially on the inside, but a lot of them need more work on the outside. With a facility such as it has now, of course, it tends to attract more investment. I certainly encourage the state government to put more money into Ringwood Heights. I know they are putting a little bit in, but it certainly needs a lot more.

I would like to say a special thanks to the principal of Ringwood Heights, Mr Randall Vague. Without his input, I do not think the schools project would have got off the ground and nor would the Maroondah template itself. He was one of a group of principals who worked with me and the eastern metropolitan region and the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to achieve this. The result certainly speaks for itself. There are buildings that look the same elsewhere because they are from the Maroondah template. It is only one of 10 in the entire state. Eight of those are in or around the electorate of Deakin. It does reflect so well, as I said, on the school.

I would also like to say thanks to the architect involved, Mr Andrew Costa, and the building firm, W P Contractors, who did just about all the template buildings under the Maroondah template. I would also like to recognise Mr Geoff Flett, the regional network leader for Maroondah, for his contribution to getting that Maroondah template up and working for our local community.