MS TIERNEY (Western Victoria—Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education)
In mid-October I had the absolute pleasure to announce some really exciting news to three schools in the State’s south-west—Hampden Specialist School, Terang College and Colac Specialist School.
The Andrews Labor government is especially proud of its record in progressively upgrading schools for students with special needs. Portland Bay School and Merri River School in Warrnambool are outstanding recent examples of our rebuilding program.
The community behind Hampden Specialist School has been working so hard with Terang College to relocate both schools’ P–4 campuses from their current shared location to the much bigger and better site at Terang College 5–12.
This government has committed $1.187 million to plan for the relocation and rebuild.
In Colac, the parents, staff and friends of Colac Specialist have also worked long and hard and were just as thrilled to obtain $1.544 million to plan for relocation to part of the old Colac High School site.
Both funding commitments are from the Infrastructure Planning and Acceleration Fund.
The best thing about making these announcements was seeing the excitement in the eyes of the community members—as the Colac Specialist School’s Facebook page said: ‘Amazing!’.
I congratulate everyone involved for their hard work, perseverance and commitment to their students’ futures.
Both of these relocations and builds are great steps forward for the schools, steps that will deliver 21st-century-standard facilities for their students.
Importantly, they will continue to be models of quality inclusive education.
I’m particularly proud that some of the best specialist schools in Victoria will be in my electorate of Western Victoria.
