E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Simon Birmingham: Thank you, thank you very much Ms Bradford and to you, to Katrine Hildyard, the local State MP for this area, Mayor Rosenberg, leaders of Lutheran education, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. It’s a real pleasure to be here with you all today to celebrate this opening of your new facilities. Of course, in walking through them I can see that you are already putting them to fabulous use already. So, this is really an occasion to celebrate all that’s wonderful about your school and to be thankful for all that you are given through this school, not just these new buildings, but all the great things about Calvary Lutheran Primary School.
Now boys and girls, who likes chocolate cake? And who likes to help to make chocolate cake? Okay. There we go. So, most of you like chocolate cake and most of you like to help make chocolate cake and when you’re making chocolate cake, you need lots of different ingredients to make chocolate cake, don’t you? You need eggs, milk, chocolate, butter …
Unidentified speakers: [Inaudible crosstalk]…
Simon Birmingham: … sugar, all sorts of different – flour, that’s right, all sorts of different ingredients that go into making a good chocolate cake. And you follow a recipe in a book, that’s right. Now, a school is sometimes a bit like a good recipe. There are lots of different ingredients that go into making a great school. Obviously, there’s the boys and girls, so you’re a fairly central part of the ingredient for a good school. But then there are your teachers, your principal, the administrative staff, all those people who help to make the school run, to give you the fabulous learning experience at the school.
Then there are the mums and dads and grandparents who are also central to creating a sense of community and then there’s the wider community, the church, council, all those who help to provide support, and a sense, that goes right around the school environment. All of those different ingredients go into making a fabulous school. And one part of that are buildings, perhaps the least important part in many ways, because what you get from your wonderful teachers, what you get from your parents and their engagement in the school, what you receive from the church and from the local community, are all far more important than just the building.
But the building creates the learning space and the environment for you to receive all of those wonderful things and the outstanding education that you get here. So, today we celebrate this new building which, as the – Australia’s Education Minister, I’m very proud that we are in a position to have supported your school, to make this building a reality, to create these new learning spaces for you which will serve not just all of you, but of course many more boys and girls who will come to study here in the years to come.
So, thank you very much. Thank you for coming and listening to me today. Thank you to you, the boys and girls, to the teachers and support staff, to the community, to the parents, the church, to all those who make this such a wonderful school, who make this such a wonderful environment to learn in and it is my pleasure today to formally declare open your new learning areas. Thank you very much [applause].