My adjournment is to the Minister for Education, and I ask the minister to join me in Northcote for a tour of some of our wonderful local schools. The inner north is of course home to the best schools in the state. Innovative, creative and compassionate, they reflect the values of our community, and it has been my absolute honour to work with them over the last five years to support their aspirations for the future. Through the passion, dedication and hard work of countless community members and the backing of a Labor government that places education front and centre, we have some really spectacular things to showcase, whether it is Wales Street Primary, which had a $4.1 million investment to transform the front of the school and create some new STEM spaces and upgraded classrooms back in 2019, or Thornbury High, which just this year opened a new STEAM centre with $14.9 million from our government, an opportunity for young people to pursue passions in science, art, food tech and much more.
We have got Bell Primary, $7.2 million for a new gym and performance hub, and I am pleased to report to parents of that community that a new builder has been appointed. We did have some roadblocks, but a new builder has been appointed, and that should be up and running as the start of the next year begins. At Fairfield and Alphington primary schools, together we created new learning buildings and spaces for 400 new children to cater to that growing 3078 postcode and those suburbs.
Just recently I visited Croxton specialist school, run by the gem of a person Bev Fegan, where these beautiful students are now enjoying new art spaces. I got to see some of their art exhibition earlier this month, and can I say it was really heartwarming to see these brand new facilities there for those children that are very, very deserving of them. We also this year opened Preston South Primary’s $14.6 million new three-storey learning building. Principal Leon Leonidas and I did a tour of it earlier in the year, and the school captains showed me around. It was a fantastic tour, and those facilities are incredible.
Pender’s Grove have so many ideas and aspirations for improvements at their school. They had an inclusive schools grant that did some initial works around there, but I know that they have got some ideas. Northcote High is in construction for a new STEM centre, a fantastic facility there that we are funding. And at Thornbury Primary, of course, in an election commitment from 2022, we are planning the work of their $17.6 million upgrade.
These are tangible projects that are building a brighter future for the inner north, and they demonstrate Labor’s commitment to our suburbs and the value we place on education and its power to transform lives.
