Page 2262 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 1 August 2017

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education is made available to all, according to their individual needs, life opportunities are unlimited.

The first discussion paper considers this issue by identifying the journey of children through their education. It asks our community to consider: are we ensuring that all children are ready to start school? Are children enabled and supported to learn each day? Are children gaining a year’s learning from a year’s schooling? Does the education provided set children up for work and for life?

I am looking forward to hearing about the insights that our community brings forward on these questions. There have already been some very clear themes emerging that will play an important part in laying out the strategy, and I am keen to build on these and confirm that the government understands the conversation so far.

MS CHEYNE: Minister, what are some of the emerging themes being raised by the community?

MS BERRY: I thank the member for the supplementary question. Through the conversations so far some consistent and very important themes are being raised by students, parents, carers, teachers and the wider community. Broadly categorised, there has been interest in some of the more practical issues of how schools are structured and operate. This has emerged in feedback from all groups, except young people themselves, about the level of variation between schools across a range of issues. There is a clear desire and need for the community to turn its mind to the respective roles and responsibilities of individual school principals and teams as well as the education support office and related to this is the issue of how student transitions between stages of schooling are managed.

The government is also being told about the extent to which schools are seen as centres of the community and how important it is that the whole community works together to support the needs of children. So while we cannot expect teachers and schools to meet every need on their own, by building strong partnerships across sectors, students will be better supported.

By far the most frequently raised theme is that students need to be supported with learning for the future with key competencies in areas such as resilience, communication, critical analysis and thinking, and cultural awareness and understanding. Students have brought an alternative facet to this theme, raising the importance of their need to be equipped for life after school, which some college students I have spoken to have described as being taught how “to adult”. This extends beyond being provided real life skills to being better equipped for alternative pathways to work or to further study aside from university.

Health—election commitments

MS LEE: My question is to the Minister for Health. In the past week we have learnt that a review of methadone guidelines is five years overdue. The commitment on publicly funded bariatric surgery is three years overdue. The review of alcohol and


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