Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise today to wish a very happy birthday to the Hallett Cove Preschool, which I visited on 22 September when they held their 20th birthday celebration. It was very nice to see a lot of people there who in fact had attended that kindergarten and whose children were now attending that kindergarten. It was a very special day. I had the pleasure of unveiling a beautiful mural, which was created by the enthusiastic children under the leadership of John Whitney. DECS officials were also there.

I wanted to talk a bit about the Hallett Cove Preschool, because there is a unique and special element to the school: they have an incredibly strong environmental focus and have long been considered leaders in this area. They have a great motto, which is ‘Reducing, reusing and recycling’. This strong environmental focus has encouraged all the children there to engage in activities that develop ecologically sustainable practices, skills and ideas. The preschool’s environmental focus is evident through their environmental policy: they have set a target to become carbon neutral by 2011.

The environment has been a key focus of the director and staff at the Hallett Cove Preschool since its opening in 1989. Awareness was established by planting waterwise native plants, particularly those native to the local area of Hallett Cove. In addition, they have been encouraging children to take care of their preschool’s private vegetable garden, the produce from which is sold to the local community. The Hallett Cove Preschool is an ecologically sustainable site, storing and using sunshine and rain. The rainwater is collected and saved in a 22,000-litre tank and is used to water the vegie patch and surrounding lawns. Power is generated by the 24 solar panels on the roof and is used to provide electricity for the centre, and remaining power is fed back into the grid.

It is great to see that the children attending the Hallett Cove Preschool are learning some very important environmental values at such an early age. I am sure that these children, as we have often seen previously, will take some of these environmentally friendly ideas back home and teach their mums and dads a few handy tips. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the director, Heather, all the staff, the board of management and all the parents and children. It was a wonderful day.