St Kevin’s Primary School kids teach real estate agent a lesson
Darren Cartwright, The Courier-Mail
March 8, 2018 5:06pm
A BRISBANE real estate agent could not believe his eyes when his mailbox was jammed with protest letters from more than 200 disappointed students from a local primary school.
Every Grade 1-5 student at St Kevin’s Primary School at Geebung individually wrote a letter to Innov8 Property owner Michael Spillane for saying their suburb lacked schools in an article in The Courier-Mail.
St Kevin’s Primary Learning Leader Nikki Saunders said the exercise of writing and posting letters was to teach the children to have a voice and to stand–up for what they believed in.
St Kevin’s Primary School students wrote letters Innov8 Property owner Michael Spillane after his comments in a story on The Courier-Mail’s website. Michael Spillane said he couldn’t believe how many letters he received from the kids and it had opened his eyes to the quality of the schools in the area.
She said it started out as a discussion point before it developed into a practical assignment.
A decision was made to post the letters, rather than email them, to Mr Spillane.
“We wanted the students to know their voice can be heard … and we wanted to give them an opportunity in what they believed in,” Ms Saunders said.
Mr Spillane attended St Kevin’s on Thursday to deliver a face-to-face apology and promised to answer every letter.
“I’ll just need some time to write back to each child,” he said.
Ms Saunders said the students now understood the importance of expressing your views and how it can have a positive effect.
“Having the response to this, has definitely given them motivation to go out more and to see what else they can do to help the others in the community,” she said.
Michael Spillane said the St Kevin’s Primary School kids had taught him a lesson. Picture: AAP/Claudia Baxter
Mr Spillane’s comment was about how there were only two primary schools and no secondary schools in Geebung, but there were high schools in the surrounding neighbourhoods which still made the suburb attractive for families.
Geebung’s secondary school catchment area includes Aspley State High School, Wavell State High School and Earnshaw State College.
Mr Spillane said the “the children had taught me a lesson” about the quality of schools in Geebung.