Mark Oliphant College – TRANSCRIPT Parent – “We got to watch it ...

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Mark Oliphant College – TRANSCRIPT
Parent – “We got to watch it being built from the ground, from dirt, so yeah we think it’s great.”
Student – “I like doing PE and Sport so I like how there’s big ovals and the gym.”
Parent - “It’s nice, it’s big, it’s roomy and the staff and teachers are wonderful with the kids.”
Student – “I like the playground the best on the school.”
Student – “Right now I’m doing technology and visual arts and it’s really fun.”
Narrator – Mark Oliphant College sits proudly amidst a rapidly changing landscape of new housing
and infrastructure
It’s all part of Playford Alive, a new development covering one thousand hectares located 30
kilometres north of Adelaide.
Thirteen thousand people live in this area.
That number’s expected to rise to 40,000 within the next 15 years.
This College is one of two new state-of-the-art schools catering to the young families moving here.
It’s South Australia’s first purpose-built facility to offer childcare right through to Year 12 all on the
one campus
Since the College opened its doors in May 2011, more than 1100 students have enrolled, and
plenty of others are on the waiting list.
Principal Lynne Symons – You only get certain moments in your teaching career that are really
really special and watching every one of those parents come in with their kids sent a shiver down
your spine as people walked around with their mouths agape saying ‘this is ours, we’ve actually
got this, we’re entitled to this, we can have this’.
Lynne to students in woodwork class – ‘OK, come on fellas. What are we doing here?”
Student – ‘It’s engraving the wood, and we’re using a laser.’
Narrator –Principal Lynne Symons jumped at the opportunity to spend the last years of her career
in education as head of a brand new, state-of-the-art school.
But the role comes with a challenge.
To turnaround the low academic results that have – until now - been the norm for many children
living in this area, designated as one of the lowest socio-economic in Australia.
Lynne Symons – This school is not an experiment. It’s actually a real, living, breathing school.
It was built in an area where the schools were in appalling condition
This is actually the facilities that are now possible in the rest of the world. What we’ve been
fortunate enough is to have it built here.
Robotics teacher – ‘And when you make it go backwards, how many rotations do you want….’

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Narrator – In keeping with its namesake, scientist and former South Australian governor Sir Mark
Oliphant, the school’s developing a science focus.
Lynne Symons - The thing I love about Sir Mark was that he was also slightly eccentric and as a
school I think we’re standing out as being slightly eccentric too, and we’ve been given carte
blanche - by the fact that we are so new – to take those chances.
Robotics Teacher – For us as teachers to have these resources, it’s once in a lifetime.
Robotics Teacher – “And how many centimetres did you set it to stop before the wall?”
Narrator – The school’s layout around a circular walkway is designed to promote a sense of
community.
Lynne Symons on school walkway – “I say sometimes it’s like the Champs Elysees. If you stand
here long enough you’ll have everyone in the world walk past you.”
Lynne to students – “Go and line up please.”
Lynne Symons on school walkway – “It’s an amazing place to be when you’ve got 1100 kids
promenading around here and doing it basically with goodwill and no major issues, apart from the
usual rambunctiousness one gets from little kids who want to play with big kids.”
Lynne to students – “Where’s your hat?”
Student – “We’re learning about Russia and all kinds of different countries so we have to go
overseas to find the information of the laptops”
Narrator - Technology is a major tool in the quest to level the playing field, and give these students
every chance to fulfil their potential.
The investment in technology means students get hands-on experience with the kind of cuttingedge
equipment now being used by various industries.
Carpentry Teacher - When I started teaching it was all pen and paper but now kids can actually
create three dimensional models and from there go to designing and producing these things. I
could never believe that would be possible when I first started, so it’s absolutely fantastic.
Food Technology Teacher - Using these facilities to create like the pies that we made today, we
could never get that crispy, crunchy pastry at the bottom but with these fabulous ovens every
single pie works out magically. It’s brilliant.
Lynne Symons - We want our kids to be producers, not just consumers.
We want to make sure they’re in this millennium’s learning and so through that they’re going to get
the best opportunities, the best qualifications and the best employment outcomes.
Student – “The books help me to read and I like to read a lot.”
Parent – “I reckon it will be great for my son to have a leapfrog into a job. Hopefully he’ll find what
he wants to do here, and follow on with it.”

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Parent – “I’ve got four children from kindy up to year 11 and so far so good. All the children are
enjoying themselves.”
Student – “I like it because it’s not like every kind of school. It has all, like, family in it.”
Lynne Symons – When I walk out the last time I hope I leave a school that is completely confident
in itself, that the current crop of year 8s who will have hit year 12 by then, that their destination
surveys show that they’re accessing not only universities but TAFEs, but apprenticeships, but
jobs. The whole range, the whole gamut. That is the legacy that I want to leave behind, and a
school that knows it’s proud of itself.