Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Education Minister Grace Grace have congratulated all Queensland students and school staff on another massive year in education on the final day of school for 2021.
The Premier said she was proud of what schools have achieved this year despite the challenges of the pandemic.
“It’s been another tough year and our school communities have done an amazing job adapting to the challenges of COVID-19,” the Premier said.
“Our strong health response has ensured that our schools have been able to remain fully open for our students virtually throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we know, this has not been the case in other countries around the world, including other parts of Australia.
“I want to congratulate our teachers, students and school staff on a massive and challenging year and wish them a well-deserved and safe break ahead of a new year of learning in 2022.”
Minister Grace said that 2021 had been a huge year for state education, with so much achieved despite the challenges of COVID-19.
“We opened five new schools and continued to deliver a massive program of works upgrading education infrastructure right across the state,” Minister Grace said.
“We also commenced the rollout of our $100 million Student Wellbeing Package, which will see 464 additional wellbeing professionals employed to support the mental health and wellbeing needs of students throughout Queensland.
“Our homework centres started at 120 schools, providing extra hours of work for our teacher aides whilst taking 100 per cent of the stress and worry off the shoulders of parents.
“On top of this our school communities pitched in throughout the year to help with the vaccine rollout program.
“We were the first state to move school and early childhood staff into the priority 1B vaccination category with great success delivering over 87,000 doses.
“And our schools hosted three super-school vax weekends delivering 30,000 jabs targeting areas with low vaccination rates.
“We are also taking further strong action to protect those in high-risk settings by implementing the Chief Health Officer’s health directive which requires all staff and volunteers in schools and early childhood centres to have their first dose by 17 December and second dose by January 23, 2022.”
Ms Grace said that while schools were closed for the holidays, work would continue on school infrastructure projects, maintaining a pipeline of work for tradies during the quiet Christmas period.
“We are delivering a $1.9 billion infrastructure budget over 2020-21, supporting more than 4100 full time construction jobs,” Ms Grace said.
“And as we look to the year ahead, we will be delivering more classrooms, new schools and better facilities that will give all our students the best opportunities for the future.
“The countdown is now on for the first day back and work is ramping up on our three new schools – Coomera State Special School, Nirimba State Primary School and Everleigh State School – opening for the start of the 2022 school year, supporting almost 600 jobs.
“Significant works will be carried out at the last remaining schools in our $477 million Cooler Cleaner Schools Program, which is delivering air conditioning and solar panels to hundreds of state schools.
“And our GPs in Schools pilot program will commence in 50 schools next year.
“I’m also really excited to see some of our other programs and key election commitments progress next year including:
– Local Schools Local Jobs –upgraded training facilities at 26 schools across Queensland to prepare students for future jobs in the regions
– 37 new halls or hall extensions
– Outside School Hours Care infrastructure upgrades for 48 schools
– Further implementation of our commitment to invest in 6,190 new teachers and over 1,100 teacher aides
– $12m expansion of our Remote Kindy Program with 20 additional schools added
“I hope all of our students and staff are proud of what they’ve achieved this year and are looking forward to another exciting and productive school year,” Minister Grace said.
