Youngsters show pollies the way

They’re often accused of being childish but it didn’t apply to the St John's Primary youngsters who visited State Parliament on a school excursion.

Riverstone state Liberal MP Kevin Conolly recently hosted Riverstone Junior School Leadership Forum students at Macquarie St where 32 pupils from 11 primary schools attended.

Future leaders got to quiz Mental Health, Women and Ageing Minister Tanya Davies and Education Minister Rob Stokes.

Mr Conolly started the annual event to inspire junior students in leadership roles to think more broadly about leadership in the community.

“It is also an opportunity for me to recognise the hard work that school captains and leaders give to their school communities” Mr Conolly said.

Participating schools were Mary Immaculate, Norwest Christian College, Hambledon Public School, John Palmer Public School, Parklea Public School, Quakers Hill East Public School, Riverbank Public School, Riverstone Public, Schofields, John XXIII Catholic College and St John’s primary.

The Deputy Speaker acknowledged students, who also watched question time in the Legislative Assembly, aka the bear pit, where they saw Gladys Berejiklian and other ministers locking horns with the opposition.

Hambledon Public School student Mia said the event was fun.

“I enjoyed it when the guest speakers came in,” she said.

I really enjoyed meeting other schools and bonding with them. I think that Question Time was quite interesting.

Mr Conolly then gave the students a personal tour of Parliament House.

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23 Sep 2026
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18 Sep 2026
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On Monday, seven of our Year 6 students represented our school at the Socktober launch and soccer gala day held by Catholic Mission, CSPD and the Wanderers soccer club. They had a great day of playing soccer with other schools in the diocese. They also spent some time learning about the country of Malawi and difficulties faced by many of its citizens. The students also learnt how to make soccer balls out of recycled materials. This year, Catholic Mission is raising funds to build a school in Malawi to provide education to 800 students. St John’s will be supporting Catholic Mission’s appeal early next term with a fundraising initiative led by the Year 6 students who attended the Socktober Gala day and other volunteers from our Mini Vinnie’s team. If you would like to contribute to our school fundraising page earlier, please click on this link. https://www.socktober.org.au/fundraisers/stjohnsriverstone/socktober-2026 Keep a look out for our Term 4 Faith In Action initiatives which we will be sharing shortly. Thank you for supporting our fundraising efforts for Catholic Mission and the Socktober appeal.