Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (13:55): Last week I had the great pleasure of joining with the Minister for Education and the members for Ripon and Eureka to celebrate the official opening of the new buildings at the Ballarat Specialist School Gillies Street campus in my electorate of Wendouree. The Allan Labor government’s $10 million investment at the Ballarat Specialist School is amazing and includes a new admin area and specialist and junior years teaching and learning spaces.

A massive shout-out to the wonderful students, especially Ollie, Josh, Amiee and Cameron for welcoming us and giving us a tour of the new facilities. I would also like to make special mention of principal Sam Sheppard, the teachers, the education support team and the admin staff, who do such a great job supporting students and their families.

The Ballarat Specialist School caters for the educational, social and emotional needs of children with mild, moderate and complex intellectual disability from across Ballarat and the region. It has such a great reputation that families move to Ballarat so that their children can attend the school. Students aged between three and 18 are grouped across the early years, junior and middle schools as well as the senior school at the farm campus.

I am pleased that we are continuing to support the Ballarat Specialist School by building a new hydrotherapy pool at the senior campus. Having a hydrotherapy pool on site for the senior students will support them to access hydrotherapy as well as reducing time out of the classroom. This is another example of how we are delivering the Education State for all Victorians.

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