|
|
See the Latest Issue:
|
|
|
Below: The Grand Opening of the Village Playground |
|||
|
|
|||
See ALL the recent vision below
Fiona Ferguson: [in studio] There's a push to save a number of properties in the Johns River from ever-increasing flood events. The Catchment Management Authority's made a number of recommendations concerning the waterway that runs through the town.
[stills of Andrews.Neil EcoCentre area drawing, and then page 6 of JRJ March 09 Issue, showing the Washtub Creek graphic and CMA story]
One aspect which was of growing concern to residents was the ever-increasing flood events, which they believe could deter visitors. [shots of the new ramp to the bridge and roundabout with mostly occluded pub sign]. The main culprit they believe is Washtub Creek, which runs right through town. [panning shot of pedestrian bridge area, then the teatree soak with just trees showing]. And so, the Catchment Management Authority was brought in to investigate.
.jpg)
Lauren Kekeff: [voiceover highway shots and conversation with David] Lauren Kekeff in Johns River, for Prime News.
See ALL the recent vision below
Manning River Times, 19 August 2009
Camden Haven Courier, 22 April 2009
Manning River Times, 15 April 2009
Camden Haven Courier, 18 August 2008
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
See news on Broadband in JR Here
Our Local Schools Performance
The Johns River Community Progress Association (JRCPA), Inc.,
through the Johns River Journal (JRJ) has been a consistent
supporter of community goals including local education.
The JRCPA supports education for whatever promotes a flexible
and responsive system that challenges young people, enriches their
experience, enlarges their imagination and horizons, and equips them
where appropriate with vocational skills.
Above all, we support raising the status of education - of schools
and teachers, of teaching and learning - in Australia's priorities.
The clever country is a much overused slogan, but it does express a
worthwhile aim. If Australia is indeed to become the clever country,
we believe greater variety, and greater choice in education,
informed by accurate information, are essential.
Consistent with our support for quality education both in Johns
River and elsewhere in our community, the JRCPA through the Johns
River Journal has published charts showing a summary of the test
results from local area schools, including Johns River, Hannam Vale,
Moorland, and Kendall.
These are the area schools our readership is most likely to know
and where their children are educated. We do so fully aware of the
controversy it is likely to raise, but we take this risk believing
that publishing this information is in the public interest.
The Federal Government is right to want to rank all schools in the
country according to their performance in standardised tests. That
information is already known to education administrators, of course.
Why then does making it public make a positive contribution? We
believe there are three main reasons.
The first is, as the Education Minister, Julia Gillard, states, the
impetus it will give to parental action on standards at their
school. A more important aspect of this will be the political
pressure the information will prompt to improve standards at
underperforming schools. To point out that a school is not
performing as well as its peers is essential if problems are to be
addressed. It is not to stigmatise the school; still less is it to
stigmatise students at the school. It is to effect change where
necessary.
As a Sydney Morning Herald recently reported, figures obtained by the state Opposition show that as things stand poorly performing schools do not necessarily receive the remedial funding they need. Leaving things up to the experts - keeping performance data secret within the bureaucracy, as the critics of publication want - does not result in action.
We believe publishing the data will increase the pressure to fix problems. Moreover, we believe there is a strong case for a national body - a bureau of education statistics - to publish and analyse the information in an impartial and apolitical way.
The second reason for publishing some of the local figures is to
give our local parents better information on which to base their
choice of a school.
As a matter of policy, the Johns River Community Progress
Association does prefer that the community at large support our
local school. This increases funding and resources for our
local schoolkids in important ways, and numbers of enrolments count.
Simple aggregates of results in basic skills tests say a little
about what a school is achieving, but they do not reflect the full
experience that each school offers. They provide a necessary basis,
though, on which comparisons can be made, which, with other
information provided by schools, other parents and the community,
will give parents more confidence. We have dutifully followed
up by interviewing parents and teachers about their individual
experiences with local schools, and it would seem the results
published by the federal government do reflect at least the general
overall situation amongst local schools.
As with any radical change to past practice, there are, of course,
dangers in publishing comparative data. As critics of publication
have stated, there exists a risk that schools will be prompted
simply to teach to the test and neglect a broader education. There
is a related danger if poor performance is allied to increased
funding: might underperforming schools close to a cut-off point for
assistance not be tempted to depress their performance so as to
boost school funds? Damaging trends such as these have been observed
in Britain and the United States where school performance data has
been published.
The Federal Government has yet to explain how it will counter
practices that would undermine its attempt to improve educational
quality. However, we believe that awareness of the traps will help
education professionals - and parents - avoid them. We believe too
that on balance the benefits of transparency in this case outweigh
its possible costs.
The third reason is both more general and more fundamental. The
Government's decision to go ahead with the MySchool website, despite
widespread criticism from teachers - a core Labor constituency -
hints at a broader agenda.
The advantage for a government that wants genuinely to
transform education is that publishing the information in this way
may create a political groundswell for change - in education funding
in particular.
Funding arrangements in education obscure problems as much as they
fix them. Here in Johns River, we have a new school building going
in to house a library. But whether or not this actually
lifts the quality and results of education at the school is unclear.
Because, in broad terms, state governments fund public schools and
the Commonwealth funds private schools, politicians from different
levels of government are easily able to push different priorities to
suit local or sectional interests. The result is a confused mess of
funding policies.
By making public the comparative performance data on all schools it
is allowing all Australians to see, in effect, how each school,
public and private, is using its funding, and to judge how well
taxpayers' funds are being spent. It should lead eventually to
thoroughgoing reform of education funding. In a field where public
debate about the distribution of funds between public and private
schools has for too long been conducted in a thick fog of rumour and
prejudice, accurate comparisons will for the first time shine a
clear light.
The JRCPA invites parents and concerned community members to become
involved in their local P&C and to talk openly with teachers and
principals about their concerns, if any.
And as always, a word of praise never goes astray when dealing with
our local educators – they have difficult performance indicators to
tackle and they work hard at educating our local kids!
Recent Articles:
Manning River Times, 19 August 2009
Village Plan a Step Closer
(Click for full-sized)
Manning River Times, May 2009
Upgrade Progress and JRCPA Wish List
(Click for full-sized)
Manning River Times, May 2009
Chris Bawn: Working for the
Good of Johns River!
(Click for full-sized)
Local
Sport
Just In!
At the Australian Open Championships in the Queensland capital, javelin thrower Ben Baker won the gold medal as the top-ranked Australian behind two overseas competitors. His 77.13m throw beat Australian Olympian Joshua Robinson.
Beijing & Beyond!
You can see our local athletics star Ben Baker practicing his pyramid runs and even a few javelin throws if you'd lucky as Ben trains to maintain his personal best of 73.28m.
NSWIS sent Ben to Beijing in may to test out the Olympic Stadium, and like during the recent Olympics, Ben mentioned that "Beijing was full of smog, the pollution was really bad". He survived, and expects to have a long career, with peak performance for javelin often occurring in the 30s, so Ben has quite a few years ahead of him.
Ben's interest in athletics came when Ben was 16 during a school carnival in year 10, when he found he enjoyed shot-put. He missed making Zone that year, and switched to javelin, where he found his milieu, today in rare company, throwing within 2% of the first Olympic "B" qualifier mark (and within 9% of the "A" qualifiers).
Ben’s routine of training in Johns River, weight training in Laurieton, and work with local business Mid-Coast Eggs just north of Kew keeps Ben busy and on the road.
Say Cheese Please!
Son of Fred and Nelly Baker, Ben and wife Casie are working to bring the family's goat farm online in the near future, with fresh premium quality goat milks going to local markets and health food stores next year.
Tourists coming up from Sydney on the new highway will have an excellent view of the farm at Passionfruit Creek between Middle Brother and Algona Roads, the hillside dotted with goats who will also be producing tasty cheeses in a variety of styles. "Once people have actually tasted the goat cheeses, they always come back for more", he reflected. Dairy products from goats are generally better tolerated by humans, with less reactions compared with cows’ milk.
Media Release May 9, 2008
Our Ben in Beijing!
Ben Baker, son of Nelly and Fred Baker, gave the track at the Beijing Olympic Stadium a test run.
Baker, along with 23 other NSW Institute of Sport future stars competed at a test event in May. The NSW Institute of Sport organised a tour of developing athletes from the Emerging Athlete Program (EAP), NSWIS Scholarship holders and NSW under-23 athletes.
Ben, from John’s River, did great in the javelin throw with a PB of 73.28m.
In a recent competition the Chinese had three athletes over 73m and a total of 15 over 70 metres, so Baker indeed had plenty of competition from the Chinese who were driving for Olympic selection.
Although aged 25, Baker is still considered a few years from his peak as athletes in power events can continue to improve until at least 30. The differences between John’s River and Beijing could not be more different as the city has a population of 15 million.
The Olympic Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, was the show case venue of the Beijing Olympics and was the last venue to open. Seating 91,000 it hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, track and field events and the football finals. The 4-day Test Event was May 22-25 in 2008.
Additional Resources
See our Front Page for the latest notices, and our Meetings page for minutes and past actions of the management committee and membership.
Local Websites for News:
JOIN US!
-
PLEASE! Become one of our over 80 members today!
Fill out & mail your JRCPA Membership Application Here!