00:00So you must be very proud of the students and also, you know, proud in yourself in terms of what
00:05you've achieved with the robotics competition here.
00:10The skills that Jazz has got have taken four years to develop, at least.
00:16And so, yeah, it just goes on, on Mondays and Thursday afternoons after school.
00:21We just keep grinding out for months.
00:23And you can't, because it's such a random competition, you can't always predict the outcome.
00:34But this year we've had really excellent outcomes because the quality of the robots has escalated no end.
00:43And the new equipment, for example, we have, that has been enabled by the support that we have received, like
00:51from the Office of the Chief Scientist.
00:54And also community support, Rotary has been very helpful.
00:59Like I mentioned before, we had only two laptops between six teams last year at the national championships, and that
01:07was problematic.
01:07And so Rotary support, we will be going there with enough laptops for one each team this year.
01:13And what does it mean to you, Jazz?
01:15I mean, you've been working so hard.
01:16You're now in year 11 and you started when you were in year 8.
01:19Obviously you've sort of learnt a lot in those years.
01:22So, yeah, what have you, what do you think the biggest lesson that you've learnt over the years might have
01:27been?
01:27I think taking it slowly and actually focusing on, like, the little things first before trying to progress too fast.
01:35Because you do need to have quite the understanding of how everything works before just diving right into it.
01:42Which is another reason why we have the year 7 start on the little two wheel robots.
01:46A lot simpler than four wheels, less problems, and it's just easier, like, trying to get them going and running.
01:54And it's easier for them to learn as well.
01:56So I'll be teaching them code, which will hopefully then let them continue in the future a lot more easily.
02:04Mentoring of the older students, of the younger students, is a really key component.
02:08I don't know anything about coding. Nothing.
02:11So having, you know, the older students mentor the younger ones is also a vital leadership skill that we developed
02:19in the robotics program.
02:20And Rob, I mean, the state funding that has gone towards helping these students get to the next stage is
02:27very valuable, as we've just heard.
02:30And, you know, do you hope that you continue to advocate, could continue to advocate on behalf of the school
02:35to continue supporting the robotics program in the future?
02:38I mean, their dedication towards the program just goes to show just how valuable it can be.
02:43Absolutely. The STEM grant funding at the moment was $10,000 to come into the Camden Haven High School.
02:49It's been, this similar funding has been delivered to other high schools in the area.
02:54And it's, this one is based on equity as well as accessibility to that funding.
02:59So this allows the students then to be able to participate, to go away to national championships.
03:05These guys are heading to Canberra. That isn't cheap.
03:07So this is going to help to make that happen.
03:09But this also wouldn't happen without a huge amount of dedication from the staff and the team here at all
03:14of the high schools we have in New South Wales.
03:17James Langley in this instance gives up two afternoons every day of his time that goes from around quarter past
03:23three to five o'clock two days a week.
03:25And he doesn't have to do that.
03:26But that's a dedication we have of great teaching culture in this Port Macquarie electorate and obviously the Camden Haven
03:32High School.
03:32And the students such as Jazz wouldn't have got to this level over four years without that dedication.
03:37So a huge thank you to everybody.
03:38I had a very happy.
