FORMER prime minister Bob Hawke visited Werribee Secondary College last Monday to launch a program that will use high-level sports and cultural personalities as mentors to the school’s 1250 students.
The “Champions for Werribee” program was developed by Tim Pallas, State Labor candidate for Tarneit.
“The school has had a rough time in recent weeks and students have had a general tarring with the same brush,” said Mr Pallas.
The names of the elite sports people and clubs, who will “have a broad association with the western suburbs”, will be announced later this week, Mr Pallas said.
School principal Steve Butyn said Mr Pallas was able to use his “fairly incredible connections” to wheel out Mr Hawke to officially announce the mentoring program.
Mr Hawke – Australian prime minister from 1983 to 1991 – was then whisked off to Ballarat for the Labor Party’s official campaign launch.
The elder statesman told a group of about 100 of the school’s students that the way they applied themselves to their school years would determine the quality of the rest of their life.
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“Don’t think you know your limits…when you test yourself you’ll find you have capacities beyond what you imagine,” he said.
Mr Butyn said he was enthusiastic about the 12-month program, which will be used as a pilot for other Victorian schools.
However he was cautious the Champions for Werribee should not be seen as “pandering or feeling sorry for us,” he said.
“We appreciate the opportunity to meet the high flyers, but factually it’s incorrect that the students are hurting or need something like this,” he said.
“We’ve always stressed that with honest hard work and resilience, you will achieve.”
At the same time, State Education Minister Lynne Kosky announced funding for the second stage of the school’s $18 million rebuilding program from the government’s 2007-08 and 2008-09 budgets.
The money will help build new science rooms and upgrade general classrooms.
The school received the first $6 million of the total package as part of last year’s budget.
Since then, school officials have lobbied hard for the rest of the money so the school can have a “seamless transition” between its three rebuilding stages, said Mr Butyn.
