NEWS DESK
College plans for jobs of the future TOORAK College, Mt Eliza, will next year begin building a new science and technology centre where its students can learn the skills needed for Australia’s fastest growing industries. Over the next decade the school believes 75 per cent of jobs will require skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), despite enrolment in these subjects declining across Australia. “Currently, females are significantly underrepresented in STEM careers and make up only 16 per cent of STEM qualified professionals,” Toorak College Principal Kristy Kendall says. “Only one in four IT graduates and fewer than one in 10 engineering graduates are women.” Ms Kendall says the college’s planned science and technology centre – “the largest capital project in the school’s 143 year history” - will equip students with skills and knowledge for a “lifetime” of STEM learning. “The STEM field is continuing to grow and we are seeing more and more careers that are dependent on science and technology, but many young girls don’t consider STEM subjects in their VCE and employment paths.” Ms Kendall said. “We want to change this and see this project as an essential investment into the future of our students and the future of many generations to come.” Ms Kendall says the college has worked with educators, industry professionals, and architects to design a building “that is at the forefront of education”. “It will mimic real life working environments to foster creative, collaborative and engaging learning.”
Bleach clean-up BEACH Patrol Safety Beach/Dromana members collected 30 kilograms of rubbish, including some asbestos, two syringes and 20kg of general rubbish made up of plastic bags and paper, on their second clean-up day Sunday 15 October. After sorting, organiser Gary Robertsoncounted 153 pieces of rope, string and elastic bands, 58 cans, 420 small plastic pieces and bottle tops, 800 cigarette butts, 228 straws and 26 utensils, lots of golf balls, 18 glass bottles and 76 pieces of broken glass, as well as 56 plastics bottles and cups.
Tennis open day Not a cloister in sight: An artist’s impression of the science and technology centre planned for Toorak College.
Dr Georgina Such, a former Toorak College graduate and current senior research fellow in Melbourne University’s chemical and bimolecular engineering department says STEM education is about “being creative, thinking laterally and solving problems”.
“It is really important for students that they are exposed to STEM concepts and terminology from a young age so they can better understand what is going on in the world,” she said. The science and technology centre build will have six biology, phys-
ics and chemistry “super labs”; a zone for coding and engineering; open learning and university-style lecture areas; an “entrepreneur popup space”; collaborative “learning spaces and breakout zones”; and an outside science courtyard and laboratory.
AN open day will be held at Mornington Tennis Club on Melbourne Cup Day, Tuesday 7 November. Play will begin at 11.30am at the courts in Dunns Rd Reserve. Committee member Kaye Waghorne said members and non-members were welcome to take part in a fun day of tennis for juniors and seniors, with cup sweeps, door prizes, refreshments and barbecue at $5 adults and $2.50 children. Details: Penny, 0417 381 389.
Shire goes ahead with club rent rise Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au DESPITE strong opposition, Mornington Peninsula Shire is determined to force a massive increase in the rent it receives from the Hastings Cricket and Football Social Club. Councillors last week decided to advertise their intention of offering the club a new 21-lease lease, but with a rent increase from $4000 a year to $42,000 in the first year. The rent will rise $5000 a year for the following two years and then three per cent a year until expiry of the lease.
The latest offer, which will be advertised and open for public comment, is virtually the same as that proposed by council in June and ignores an alternative proposed by the club in August. At that stage, the club suggested it pay a maximum rent of $40,000, with just $10,000 going to the shire and the remainder being allocated to “projects” at Hastings Park ($15,000), “projects/ charities” at Hastings ($10,000) and $5000 to the club’s community support fund. If the club agrees to the shire’s latest terms, “all amounts [of rent] after the first $10,000” will be “partly allocated
to … Hastings Park and … to community groups in the local Hastings area”. The club’s lease – which includes a building housing a gaming room – expired in December 2016. The club has been allowed continue remain under existing lease conditions while discussions were held with the shire. However, it now seems discussions with the shire and club representatives have achieved little, with property and strategy manager Yasmin Woods telling councillors that the Valuer-General assessed the commercial ground rental value at $60,000 a year plus GST. “On the basis that the commercial ac-
tivities on the premises are undertaken by a community group, the proposed rent reflects a 30 per cent discount on this valuation,” Ms Woods stated in a report to council’s Tuesday 10 October meeting. “We know the club is well-loved by Hastings and wider community. It has been in operation since the 1970s and provides social facilities for its members,” the mayor Cr Bev Colomb said. Cerberus Ward councillor Kate Roper said rent paid by the club under the new lease “will go back into continual upgrades to Hastings Park and assistance for those struggling in our community”.
In June, Ms Woods told council her original rent suggestions were not tied the money to gaming receipts. and quoted sections of the shire’s Responsible Gaming Strategy as justification: “To ensure that venues operating gaming machines on shire owned land make a positive contribution to the community.” The strategy notes that “the presence of gaming machines changes the nature of operations of a community club. Gaming machines are a commercial activity that attracts new financial resources to the venue, resources that are not available to clubs without gaming machines.”
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Mornington News
24 October 2017