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Education & training

Explore your own backyard this holidays

These school holidays why not see "what’s in your own backyard’ or sign up for a school holiday activity within the Hindmarsh or West Wimmera region. Hindmarsh Shire Council has a number of great inside activities for young and old ... Kaniva Link is offering several craft activities these holidays in preparation for the Kaniva Show entries this year.

Homework club at The Patch

The Wimmera Development Association (WDA) and Nhill Learning Centre have partnered for years to deliver homework club support for multicultural students in Nhill. The program is provided for students who may have English as a second or third language, or whose parents do not speak English and cannot support with homework.

Locals ‘flock’ to TAFE NSW Yass amid wool jobs boom

Australia’s peak wool marketing body has welcomed strong demand for wool classing training at TAFE NSW Yass as the industry confronts a growing skills gap. TAFE NSW has seen demand surging for the Certificate IV in Wool Classing this semester, with record enrolments across a number of campuses in the region.

Suite of educational resources brings Victoria’s food and fibre industry to southwest classrooms: FFGSC

Food and Fibre Great South Coast released a comprehensive suite of interactive classroom resources designed to build school students’ exposure to Victoria’s diverse food and fibre sector. Drawing on a wide-range of resources from leading industry and education bodies, these free classroom resources have been selected and aligned with key areas of the Australian curriculum for teacher ease and direct student relevance.

Kangaroo Art at Maldon Primary

Maldon Primary School students have decorated kangaroos for the Kangaroo Art Installation. This art installation is part of the Maldon Winter Festival. Students decorated three kangaroos using a variety of mediums. Students in all grades contributed to the kangaroo artwork.

North Central LLEN meets at the Rex

More than 50 board members, staff, partners, stakeholders, and community members attended the North Central LLEN Annual General Meeting and stakeholder event at the Rex Theatre in Charlton last week. Hosted by CEO Jane Hosking and fellow staff member Molly Meadows, the evening featured a range of elements including the AGM itself and a facilitated panel of young people about why they chose agriculture as a career pathway.

Bird nerd Milly captivates students with flying quest to save shorebirds

Fitting neatly into co-curricular studies and specifically, the Connecting to Cattana Wetlands program, year 6 students at Trinity Anglican School (TAS) White Rock campus were treated to a special presentation this week about migratory shorebirds by zoologist, microlight pilot adventurer and children’s book author, Milly Formby ... TAS’ year 6 students were captivated by Milly’s presentation which provided a practical perspective to their studies of Cattana Wetlands near Smithfield...

New Children’s University for the district

The Naracoorte Library will be used as a new children’s university hub. This move is to support home-schooled children in the Limestone Coast region by extending learning outside of schools. Confirming this, Naracoorte-Lucindale Council CEO Trevor Smart said the children’s university hub will enable children and their parents to come together and engage with others in a bid to learn.

Teacher shortage

South Australia is facing a teacher shortage crisis that is “deeply affecting” schools in country towns like Naracoorte. Highlighting this, Australian Education Union (SA Branch) president Andrew Gohl says the government needs to provide improved conditions and incentives to hire and retain educators in rural areas ... He said teachers were burning out at rates never seen before, with half of them planning to leave in the next five years.

Students set sights on national pedal power prize

Serena Kirby. Denmark Senior High School will be the first school in the Great Southern to enter a team in this year’s Australian Human Powered Vehicle Super Series. This nationwide series of races, also known as the Pedal Prix, comprises six rounds of races with five held in South Australia and one in Busselton.

New program supports recovery vision

The Upper Murray Community Recovery Committee (CRC) is partnering with Alpine Valleys Community Leadership (AVCL) to deliver a program for emerging and future community leaders of the Upper Murray region and other fire-affected areas of the Towong Shire ... "This program is an opportunity to develop leadership skills which will enable participants to effectively contribute to the community capacity building and economic development of the Upper Murray": Jo Mackinnon, Chair, UMI.

Regional doctors to provide voluntary assisted dying

Michelle Daw. Doctors in the region covered by the Yorke and Northern Local Health Network are among those who have completed mandatory training for Voluntary Assisted Dying ... VAD Board presiding member Associate Professor Melanie Turner encouraged more clinicians to consider registering for VAD training so they could support South Australians with the care they may need, no matter where they lived in the state.

Building farm spirit

Relationships, social support, physical fitness and a sense of belonging are key elements for positive mental health, and being part of a sporting community like the Birchip-Watchem Football, Netball and Hockey Club ticks all these boxes ... Following the headspace round, the National Centre for Farmer Mental Health also jumped on board and provided funding from its flood recovery program "Building Farm Spirit" ...

Partnerships deliver mental health message

In recent weeks headspace Swan Hill has actively partnered with twenty-four local sporting clubs to deliver important mental health messages and strategies in three leagues across the North Central and Mallee communities.

Palaszczuk Government makes Kindy free for families: Palaszczuk, Dick, Grace

The Palaszczuk Government is making kindergarten free for all Queensland families from 1 January 2024. The Premier announced the $645 million investment which will help every Queensland child get a great start in life and support parents in their return to work.

Showing their steers teaches farm kids about money

Not every child gets a Christmas present of money to buy a steer. The Gould kids did. Harper, 12, Allora, 11, Slater, 9, and Ledger, 7, bought steers and named them Big Boy Steve, Fuzz, Parker and Max ... Adam said being on the farm is good for the kids because they have to take responsibility. They get out here at 3am to milk the cows and by 6am they’re ready to go, he said.

Why?

Every morning, busloads of students leave Naracoorte for their secondary education in schools in Mount Gambier and Lucindale ... Many other parents choose boarding schools in Victoria and Adelaide, where students live during each school term ... While this could be a matter of choice for many, why do you think this is happening, and what’s driving the parents to make this decision when we have a public school in Naracoorte?

Bold changes

An education union has called for bold changes in the way the South Australian Education Department manages education across the state, particularly in country schools. Australian Education Union (SA Branch) president Andrew Gohl says for over a decade, governments have banked on the goodwill of educators to keep their system running ... the Department’s own Country Education Strategy highlighted several areas that needed improvement, including the attraction and retention of staff, incentives, access to student support services, country housing, and conditions.

New soil practitioner accreditation hits the ground running: DAFF

Farmers and land managers can have more confidence in soil practitioner knowledge thanks to a new $1 million accreditation funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The Registered Soil Practitioner (RSP) accreditation, which was developed by Soil Science Australia in collaboration with soil scientists, industry, government and land and natural resource managers, opened for applications on 22 May.

Combined schools cross country

The claypan flat at Yeovil was the place to be on a typical Wilcannia autumn day, giving the students and staff from Wilcannia Central School and St Therese’s School a perfect setting for the first combined schools cross country event ... Primary kids only had to run 1k, secondary had a 4k slog, well most of them did.

Crying out for accessible care

Australia needs a high-quality, universally accessible and affordable early learning childcare system, according to Thrive by Five. The organisation is calling on federal and state governments to reform early learning and child care to benefit more families and early education staff.

Costs of transitioning to net zero emissions under future climates

Assoc. Professor Matthew Harrison presents the results of a comprehensive study on the costs of transitioning farming systems across Australia to net zero emissions using a range of practical models. The study found that there are multiple pathways to net zero.

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