January 6, 2012
The Federal Education Minister has been invited to visit the Snowy River Campus at Marlo to see the benefits the ‘School for Student Leadership’ is providing to Victorian students.
The Nationals Member for Gippsland Darren Chester, who regularly visits the campus to speak with students, invited the Minister during a speech in Federal Parliament.
The Snowy River Campus is the second of the Victorian State Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s Year 9 residential leadership programs. It is based on the successful model which was developed at the Alpine School with a third campus now operating in Western Victoria.
Groups of Year 9 students from different schools across Victoria reside at the campus for nine week blocks to strengthen their leadership skills.
Mr Chester said a visit to the School for Student Leadership would help the Minister understand the benefits of the program which he believes could be expanded throughout Australia.
“More than $3 million was put into this program to establish it and to construct accommodation for 45 students in a state-of-the-art centre on the Marlo Aerodrome site,” Mr Chester told Parliament.
“I encourage the Minister, if he has ever got the opportunity when he is in Victoria, to go and have a look at the school.
“The Minister would benefit and the students would benefit from an opportunity to have him at that campus.”
Mr Chester said the school was ideally located to bring out the best in students.
“The campus offers students quite remarkable opportunities for outdoor learning,” Mr Chester said.
“They may go caving at Buchan, canoeing on the river and estuary system at Marlo itself, surfing at Cape Conran, mountain bike riding or on overnight hikes,” Mr Chester said.
“They have students from metropolitan and country areas thrown together. There might be four or five students from each school, adding up to 45 or so kids for the whole term.
“The students are encouraged to really learn about the environment but also to learn a lot more about themselves.”