Ipswich Girls' Grammar School:
Opening of the Peter Phillips Senior School Complex and the Mavis Parkinson Junior School Centre, Ipswich Girls' Grammar School
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Ms Rachel Nolan, Parliamentary Secretary and MP for Ipswich;
Mr Wayne Wendt, MP for Ipswich West;
Mrs Janet Pisasale, representing the vigorous Mayor of Ipswich City Council;
Ipswich City Council Councillors;
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mr Peter Phillips;
School Principal, Ms Florence Kearney;
Deputy Principal, Ms Rhonda Nolan;
Head of the Junior School, Ms Karen McArdle;
Business Manager and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Mr Peter Quinlan;
Mrs Mae Frame, niece of Mavis Parkinson
Other Distinguished guests, including Members of the Board of Trustees and the School Executive;
Teachers and students, past and present
What a long list of acknowledgements - but what a wonderful roll-call also, underlining the importance of today's event and the high regard, respect and affection that people have for Ipswich Girls Grammar School, that they should make such an effort to be here today for the opening of these magnificent new buildings.
On that point of respect, in the spirit of reconciliation and the respectful recognition that we wish to see accorded to the first peoples of Australia, I acknowledge the traditional owners of these lands, the Jagera peoples and their descendants.
Thank you for the invitation to join you today.
As some of you know from the several official visits I have made to Ipswich since I took up my appointment as Governor not quite seven months ago, I have long-standing connections to this city, with many members of my family having settled here and contributed to its early development, from the 1850's onwards.
I did not, myself, have the privilege of attending this splendid Girl's school (one of the "first eight" established under the Grammar Schools Act of 1860 during the first session of Queensland's first Parliament, the original group of Queensland Grammar Schools -which I prefer to call the ‘eight greats'!); but I am proud that the name of my great-aunt, Minnie McCulloch, revered by many Queensland women as an inspirational teacher and indelible influence in their lives, is to be found on the honour board in the Boardroom.
Aunt Min's Ipswich Girls Grammar schooling - matching that of her four brothers at your own ‘brother' school, Ipswich Boys Grammar - led her to win the Fairfax Silver Medal for arithmetic in Junior, topping the exams in both Queensland and NSW and the Byrnes Medal for mathematics in Senior - the first girl to do so. This earned her an open scholarship and entry into the University of Queensland in 1912, only the second year of its existence. There she completed an honours degree in mathematics, Latin and Greek and took to teaching like the proverbial duck to water.
I tell this not to regale you with a personal family history, but to make an important point: that this school has been delivering strong results for a very long time and that the quality of education that it has consistently offered to its students, has produced many high-achieving women, many remarkable and successful citizens, who have had a very real impact on our State and on the lives of others.
One such person is, of course, Mavis Parkinson, who we honour today in the naming of the Junior School Centre. Although her life was cut tragically short in a cruel way, her choice to become a missionary, to serve in New Guinea, to live a life of commitment to others, must in part have derived from her education and from the values instilled in her at school-at this Ipswich Girls Grammar School.
There are countless others we could name across all fields of endeavour and achievement, you know them better than I, among them Eleanor Greenham, the first student to be enrolled and the first Queensland-born woman to take a degree in medicine, Zora Cross, the poet, novelist and journalist, Vi Jordan - the second woman to be elected to the Queensland Parliament, Rachel Nolan - who is with us today, the youngest woman to be elected to the Queensland parliament.
The record, as well as the record-breaking, stretches proudly across the 117 years of the School's history, across generations of students, of teachers, of Principals, of head girls, of parents and P and C associations, of Trustees and of Chairmen of the Board.
The role, the influence and the contribution of some of these persons is not always as evident or as remarked upon publicly as others. Say the word ‘school', and everyone thinks immediately of students and teachers - and then next, most usually - of classes and curricula and about the content and quality of education. Yet the quality of a school and of the education it offers, its character, reputation and standing and its ability to "deliver" to the pupils and the families it exists to serve, clearly depends on a much wider range of factors and a complex fabric of support systems.
Among those support systems, the Board of Trustees and its Chairman play a pivotal role. I am very pleased to see this role recognized through the naming of the new Senior School building after Peter Phillips, who has served as a Trustee for 32 years and as Chairman for nine years. Mr Phillips' commitment to the school, forged through personal connections initially, has been exemplary and it is fitting that he be honoured in this way, but I am sure he would be the first also to see this gesture as a permanent tribute to the role of the Board and of the Trustees in the history of the School.
Of course, apart from the significance and symbolism of their names, the physical character and appearance of the buildings themselves and the sophisticated features and facilities they contain, will add immeasurably to that overall character and quality of the School to which I referred earlier. Designed by the architecture firm Fairweather Proberts of Brisbane and constructed by builders Evans Harch of the Sunshine Coast, assisted by Flagstaff Consultants, these are, quite simply, wonderful additions to the School.
I compliment the architects and designers on their bold and imaginative approach and the way they have incorporated these modern buildings, with their state-of the-art facilities, into the campus, alongside the more traditional and heritage buildings.
I am sure that students and teachers alike will find them a pleasure to use and a stimulus to learning. When I recall the baking hot class rooms and playgrounds of my school days, the old Bunsen burners and basic equipment in the science labs, the single hall with a simple stage that was used for everything, assemblies, plays, wet weather shelters, school dances, I am simply bowled over by the discussion rooms, preparation rooms, sophisticated science laboratories, tiered theatre and students services centre, covered play areas, wet areas, computer rooms and interactive white boards... and very proud, as Governor of Queensland, to see such a commitment to excellence being made within our school system.
This is a commitment which I believe to be essential if our State and our country is to rise to the challenges of the 21st Century. Our students - whether in Prep, Junior, Middle or Senior school - need the best possible tools for learning and our teachers, an environment which enables them to give their best and to bring out the best in each and every individual in their care. Regrettably, this is not possible everywhere across the State, not because of lack of vision or ambition - but because the resources are lacking.
Here at Ipswich Grammar that was not the case. I know that some of the funding came from insurance, following the devastating fire in 2005, some from borrowings and some from the State Government Capital Assistance scheme, but I also know that the raising of the total funds needed for these new buildings $22 million, involved huge effort and resolve, linked to a determination that the new buildings should not simply be good buildings, sufficient to meet the school's expansion and the region's population growth - but should be the very best; that they should provide students with facilities of the highest quality; and the school - as Principal Mrs Flo Kearney urged, with the platform needed for the coming decades.
Knowing about schools and fund-raising, from my days as a parent labouring on the trash and treasure stall at Canberra Girls Grammar School, running sausage sizzles at the International Schools in Hong Kong and Geneva, and knowing also about the debates about expenditure that take place on Boards among Trustees and between Boards and School executives, I can imagine there were some differences and difficulties along the way, as you developed and implemented your Master Plan, but, as the school motto reminds us - ‘Diligence Overcomes All", and, in this case, it certainly did.
I congratulate everyone involved in bringing this building project to fruition. Although it is a project of physical construction, I believe its completion represents much more than that. As students, teachers, families and the community use and enjoy these premises and facilities, now and in the future, I hope they will come to see them as a very clear and tangible expression - a living illustration and practical demonstration for all to see, of the school's mission, and values:
The mission that aims to redefine excellence in education.
The vision of:
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Offering innovative, quality educational services;
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Providing students with resources that develop their abilities;
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Creating a stimulating environment that enhances a student's effort to do his or her best;
And the values of:
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Diligence, staying focused until the goal is achieved;
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Excellence, achieving the highest standards possible; and
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Cooperation and teamwork, of sharing the vision and the effort to make dreams become reality.
With the reality squarely, and impressively, in front of us, it is now my pleasure, by unveiling these two plaques which will be placed on the buildings, to declare open the Peter Phillips Senior School complex and the Mavis Parkinson Junior School Centre.