Her latest weapon: now she has angels watching over her

CHILDREN at a Catholic school on Brisbane's northside yesterday thought the PM could use a bit of celestial support.

JULIA Gillard may be one of Australia's most public athiests, but when she appeared at a Catholic school on Brisbane's northside yesterday, the children thought she could use a bit of celestial support.

After the Prime Minister sat down on a white wicker chair and greeted the Grade 4 children at St Joseph's primary school, they chorused en masse: "Good morning Prime Minister, may the angels watch over you."

In the event, Ms Gillard only had Wayne Swan and local Labor MP Yvette D'Ath to watch over her, but she still ploughed ahead with a story to the children about a forest.

Ms Gillard, a former education minister, is in her element when she visits schools.

At St Joseph's - the proud recipient of Building the Education Revolution funds for a swish new hall, named after a priest - there were no sandwiches thrown. The PM did sign autographs, shake hands and smile for photographs.

Alyssa Sinclair, 11, beamed after the PM signed her piece of A4 paper.

"I'm going to get it laminated and framed," she told The Australian.

Another, after shaking Ms Gillard's hand, whispered to her friend: "I'm never going to wash this hand . . . ever."

Ella Trounce, 11, went one better and threw a couple of questions at the Prime Minister, when she stopped on one of the covered walkways to chat.

"I asked her what are three pieces of advice you'd tell your 12-year-old self," she said.

"And I asked, as the first lady Prime Minister, how would you like to be remembered.

"(On the second question) she said she hasn't got to that, she's still trying to improve our schools.

"For the three pieces of advice, she said 'Study hard, listen to your parents and think very hard about what you'd like to be when you grow up'."

As for who should be Prime Minister, Ella is seven years too young to vote, but has an opinion: "I'm hoping Julia Gillard because she's a lady."

At the school assembly, Ms Gillard had the children straining, with hands shot straight in the air, to answer her questions.

Ms Gillard might have been on safe ground with the children but the assembled media scrum was less interested in the Gonski reforms and more intrigued by the latest Labor leadership tensions.

It was a non-issue, Ms Gillard said, "wasted breath". Merely "rumour-mongering and speculation".

But for the record: "I am the best person to lead the Labor Party."