From the NSW Dept of Education website.

Tamworth’s public primary and high schools are suffering the same declining enrolments and changing demographics as Canberra. So the NSW Dept of Education is running a wide-ranging consultation process with the local community to plan changes to their public education system.

A paper can be downloaded from the NSW DET website, describing five scenarios that are intended to be “starting points” for discussion with the community. Consultation will be guided by a professional facilitator via written submissions, surveys, website feedback, meetings and focus groups.

At the end of the consultation period, a working party will develop a final position paper with recommendations. The working party will include representatives from DET, teachers, P&Cs, local council, and tertiary education institutions.

Have you seen today’s ABC News report?

P&C Council yesterday issued a press statement that the ACT Government should update the “Live in Canberra” website to reflect the planned closure of a quarter of Canberra’s primary schools. The P&C Council believe it is misleading not to warn potential new residents that some schools may be closed by the time they move to Canberra.

Stanhope has responded that the ACT Government are still “consulting the community”, and that it would be misleading to say the schools are going to be closed before the consultation period has ended.

What do you think? Should we tell potential new Canberrans what the Government plan to do to our suburban communities? Or should we pretend it’s all rosy and trust that the Government will do what’s best?

Parents at some pre-schools proposed to close at the end of 2006 have been asked to re-nominate their second choice pre-school by this Friday.

The letters is dated 25 July 2006 from Angela Anderson, Principal, Early Childhood, ACT Dept Education and Training. It says … “(DET) wishes to ensure registered families have access to a preschool in their home or in-care region and a choice of session times, should the preschool at which they have registered closes”.

A form enclosed with the letter asks parents to nominate a second preference preschool and preferred attendance pattern (long or short days). DET will offer places based on initial date of registration (not when the second preference is made).

The DET phone number for enquiries is 62059320.

When I attended the “Towards 2020″ information session at Phillip College back in June, the director of DET’s pre-school program assured me that “everyone will be offered a place at a pre-school in their district”. However, parents who will no longer have a pre-school within walking distance of their home may prefer to use an out-of-area pre-school that is on their route to work, older children’s schools, or other reasons. If this affects you, advice from DET is to attach a covering letter to your pre-school registration form advising the special factors affecting your preferences.

It would have been so much nicer to cosy up under the doona with the kids until they demanded pancakes for breakfast. But instead we hustled out the door (which actually took longer than I expected with a toddler and baby) to go to the protest rally outside the ALP Territory conference at Rydges Lakeside.

The protest was organised by the P&C Council to show STRONG community opposition to the school closures.

If you saw Saturday night’s ABC news, Karin MacDonald was standing in front of a Save Melrose sign held up by Chifley Action Group members. We may not have had the largest contingent of protestors, but we were certainly vocal. Look out for more Melrose protestors on Monday night’s WIN news.

Inside the conference, Karin MacDonald spoke out against the lack of true consultation. She voted with Katy Gallagher and Simon Corbell in a motion to delay the first closures until the end of next year. Although the motion was only defeated by four votes, we clearly have a lot of work to do in bringing Stanhope and Barr back to reality. Stanhope seems to be intent on closing schools despite clear messages from the Canberra community that WE WANT LOCAL SCHOOLS!

And to end off my report, here’s a future Melrose primary student in protest t-shirt:

Newly released official population data undermines the ACT Government’s plan to close two Chifley schools. This data was not available to the Government before it proposed to axe 39 schools.

Chifley pre-school and Melrose Primary School have been targeted for closure at the end of 2006 as part of the Government’s 2020 school plan. But new official data shows the Government’s enrolment projections are wrong.  The number of children aged 0 – 4 in Chifley is on the rise – 70% higher than the rest of Woden Valley and the number of births has risen 100%.

Canberra statistician Keith Blackburn has analysed the latest ABS figures Population Estimates by Age and Sex, Australia by Geographic Classification (3235.0.55.001) which was issued on 30 June 2006. Mr Blackburn says it clearly shows that Chifley is bucking the demographic trend.

“Chifley has 70% more babies and toddlers than 5-9 year olds whilst the rest of Woden has 15% fewer.  Because the ACT Government did not have these figures when it did its school projections, it assumed the same trends for all schools in the Woden Valley. The new ABS data shows this was wrong,” Mr Blackburn said.

“Just as pre-school and school enrolments can be expected to increase, the government is proposing to close both schools. The demand for pre-school and primary places in Chifley is likely to increase not decrease, despite the Government’s claim that numbers will fall.

“These figures highlight the absurdity of the Government’s school reform plan,” Mr Blackburn said.

Once an aging suburb, Chifley is being transformed. New families are rapidly changing the demography of Chifley. The latest birth data for the suburb confirms the ABS trends. Between 2000 and 2004 (the latest available) births increased by more than 100%. 

“As more young families move into the suburb, these trends will accelerate. By applying a broad brush they simply got the detail wrong, badly wrong.”

The large increase in births is not happening in neighbouring suburbs, such as Pearce for example, where the pre-school is remaining open. (see attached data)

“The figures speak for themselves and reverse the future enrolment assumptions made by the department of Education,” Keith Blackburn said.

“Chifley is a suburb in transition. It would be a shame and a huge waste of money to close the local schools, only to be forced to re-open them in 3 or 4 years time,” Mr Blackburn said.

This press release was written by Caroline Fisher for Chifley Action Group

This RiotAct article is a Q&A with Andrew Barr, including how the Melrose autism unit will be affected if Melrose Primary is closed at the end of 2006.

Another column from Paul Abramson.

The story of a homeless teenager in New York who found that the individual focus of small high schools was just what she needed to support her in completing her high school education, and progressing to Harvard.

“Advocates of large high schools always talk about the variety of courses they can offer — advanced placement, professional drama, music and sports presentations and the efficiencies of size.

Liz Murray talked about the human side of schools, about the trials and tribulations of someone who did not have outstanding recognizable talent, did not have a supportive home life, who needed personal attention. She very clearly made the case for the value of schools where every individual gets attention, where counselors and teachers deal with a reasonable number of students by name. And she identified the most significant factor in those schools as their size.”

- Paul Abramson, From Small School to Harvard in School Planning & Management, November 2005.

Paul Abramson writes the A Final Thought column for the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities. This column is on how to come up with alternative funding sources for community schools.

What do you think? Could we make Melrose a more vibrant an interesting school, as well as improving the economic bottom line, by sharing facilities? Who would you like to see us share facilities with?

This newsletter will be distributed to Melrose parents after the school holidays.

A message from Janine Roberts at the Chifley Pre-school Parents Association:

Hello,

As part of our submission against the closure of Chifley Preschool we are endeavouring to demonstrate that Chifley is a growing families area and that the Preschool is viable into the future.

As the last official census was some time ago this is somewhat of a challenge.

We are therefore trying to gather information ourselves and need your help to compile a list of families who would like the option of enroling their children at Chifley Preschool in the future. This information may also be useful to demonstrate the future viability of Melrose Primary School.

If you have young children yourselves, and would like the Preschool to be available for your child/ren’s Preschool year would you please advise:

Enrolment Year            Child’s Name

(4 yrs old by 30 April) 

Address                                Suburb

(street number optional)  

Telephone no.        email

(optional)                  (if applicable)

Your response indicates only that you would like the Preschool to be an option for your child/ren’s preschool year, and is in no way a binding arrangement.

If you have neighbours or friends with young children in the area would you please forward this email to them or ask if you may respond on their behalf. Every single name will count.

Thank you and regards,

Janine Roberts

Chifley Preschool Parents Association