Page 1969 - Week 06 - Friday, 6 May 2005
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and support needs. It was very difficult for the grandmother to take this child to school, as she lived over the other side of town, but she did not want to upset or move her from her local school, which she had been attending for many years.
The letter outlines the efforts the school went to to make sure that the young girl could continue at the school, including a teacher picking her up every morning and driving her to school and picking her up and taking her home every afternoon. The grandma has written to me saying that she would like the extra work that went on at the school to enable her granddaughter to continue at her school to be recognised and appreciated.
She talks about attending a birthday party for one of the students at the school and how, when she went there, lots of the teachers associated with the school were also at the birthday party, and how it made it a really special time for the students, who were dealing with a range of disabilities and difficulties.
I will finish by reading a bit of the letter, not identifying anyone other than the school. Of course, it is Narrabundah Primary School and the teacher being recognised—not only the principal and other teachers—is Mrs Meg Dudok. She is the teacher who picked up this child every day and took her to and from school. The grandmother writes:
I know there are other nice schools and teachers of course, but these people each and every one of them has helped me in so many ways.
She goes on to say that they have helped her granddaughter to become as well adjusted a child as she can ever be, taught her up to her full potential, encouraged her to take up music, join in sport and respect others’ feelings and differences, and have prepared her well for the next big step into high school. The letter continues:
Thankyou for taking the time to read this, but I could not just accept all Narrabundah Schools help and support without this acknowledgment. Under the leadership of Mrs Trish Keller and her dedicated staff this school must be one the Education Department are very proud of.
Chief Minister
MR SMYTH (Brindabella—Leader of the Opposition) (11.31): The Canberra community is, I think, questioning more and more the judgment of our Chief Minister, and yesterday we had confirmation of this trend. I would like to quote from the RiotACT website which posted an article yesterday titled “Comrade Stanhope calls us hypocrites, again”. It reads:
In his ongoing attempts to portray himself as a humourless loony with no sense of probity our Brave Leader has put out a media release “proving” that Liberal MLA Wild Bill Stefaniak is also a graffitist. Mr Stanhope would seem to be hoping that when we see the error of our ways we’ll agree that young Aidan Bruford should be allowed to continue his glittering career as an ALP apparatchik.
Sadly the Chief Minister’s lackeys are too busy planning a New Jerusalem to put the media release online but I’ve gone to trouble of learning a whole bunch of new programs on my shiny new laptop to bring you the contents. Firstly we have the incriminating evidence:
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