Newcastle students to get creative about waste in art competition

BY BILLIE KAAL

Newcastle Council is encouraging school students to take part in an art competition with a focus on the circular economy. 

The Close the Loop Art Competition has been created to initiate important conversations about sustainability and resource recovery.

Students have the opportunity for their art works to be showcased on waste trucks and bins across the city.

The competition remains open to all students within the Newcastle LGA, with participating schools going in the running to win a workshop from GoCircular.  

Councillor Elizabeth Adamczyk says the competition is a part of a larger approach to educate and spark community feedback on the topic. 

"The competition is designed to encourage important conversations around sustainability and resource recovery, but also encourage broader community wide feedback on what we are doing with our Sustainable Waste Strategy at the city," she said. 

Students can enter the competition through Council's website, with entries closing on the 23rd of September. 

Cr Adamczyk at Our Lady of Victories for the launch of Close the Loop school art competition.

New primary school put on the backburner for Newcastle Education Campus

BY DAKOTA TAIT

A new primary school is set to be included in planning for the upcoming Newcastle Education Campus, but construction could be on the backburner.

The project is slated to include a new high school in addition to the primary school, but a timeline, budget, and other specifics are currently unclear.

Department of Education School Infrastructure NSW Chief Executive Anthony Manning told budget estimates on Tuesday the school was not needed "immediately".

Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp says it needs to happen "sooner rather than later".

"The numbers that are projected for primary schools in the city, as you can see with all the apartments being built, are going to go sky high," Mr Crakanthorp said.

"It's better to build it now, rather than say oop, we've hit the number threshold, now let's build it, and that'll take some years."

Budget estimates heard from Mr Manning, the school would be able to happen quickly when the need crystallised. 

But Mr Crakanthorp said there needs to be a commitment now.

"I'll keep pushing it, so it will happen," Mr Crakanthorp said.

"But you know, the fact that they're saying they're going to put the primary school off and just do a few repairs initially in the first stages, simply is not good enough."

New School Bus Routes For Newcastle's Western Suburbs

BY DAKOTA TAIT

Newcastle's western suburbs are set to get new school bus routes later this month, with the hopes to reduce congestion and get kids to and from school more safely.

Families in Wallsend, Maryland, Minmi and Fletcher are likely to be covered by the improved routes.

Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery says she's excited for the plans to get the tick from the Transport Minister.

"We have had reported various accidents over the last few years, near misses to students, which has really worried children and their parents," Ms Hornery said.

"We're hoping to prevent that in the future and I know that the bus companies were really anxious to improve their services as well."

It's hoped the routes will see schoolkids crossing fewer busy roads and less parents on the road.

"We're looking forward to a safer and more efficient bus route for our students to get to school," Ms Hornery said.

Timetables for the new routes are available online ahead of their launch on Tuesday 15 June.

Image credit: Flickr

Latest Data Shows Hunter Schools Filled to the Brim with Students

BY DAKOTA TAIT

Hunter schools are packed to the rafters, with several coming in above appropriate student capacity, according to recent data from the Department of Education.

Data shows Glendore Public School at 156.4% capacity, Jesmond Public School at 125%, New Lambton Public School at 118.5%, and Callaghan College Wallsend at 113%.

Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery says overcrowding in her electorate was putting pressure not only on schools and teachers, but parents, traffic, and transport systems.

"We see the Department just stack more classrooms into school grounds, without any thought to the surrounding infrastructure and the impact that has on local communities," Ms Hornery said.

"We have seen boundary changes to Callaghan College Wallsend, Lambton and New Lambton Public Schools which has done nothing to ease the overcrowding, but has put stress and strain on the local road network as parents are forced to now drive their children to school."

John Black, Country Organiser for the NSW Teachers Federation, says the overcrowding issue is not a surprise.

"We see it every day in every school that we visit, demountables going up and taking up valuable space and nearly every public school in the state is bursting at the seams," Mr Black said.

"This was backed up in an Auditor-General's report saying that public schools would run out of room in the two years." 

But Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says the Opposition is misconstruing the data.

"What those numbers are, are basically guidelines to our school principals around the polices that they need to put in place if they're looking at out of area enrolment," Ms Mitchell said.

"Over time we've seen some out of area enrolments creep in, and that puts pressure on existing school infrastructure."

Mr Black said the Government "tinkering with enrolment boundaries" was not good enough.

"We need serious investment to meet community demand," Mr Black said. 

"We need to build new schools, build new classrooms, purchase land, look at where development is going and actually have provisional public education and services that meets demand in those areas." 

Calls to Introduce Consent Classes in Hunter High Schools

BY DAKOTA TAIT

The NSW Government is facing calls to put forward $250,000 in funding toward an early intervention program discussing consent and healthy relationships in high schools across the Hunter and the State.

The issue was raised at a NSW Budget Estimates inquiry on Tuesday following reports of alarming rates of sexual assaults of students in Sydney.

Love Bites, a respectful relationships program offered by the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, requested the funding to help train more facilitators and expand efforts following increased demand from Sydney high schools.

Labor MP Trish Doyle, Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, said communities should not have to resort to fundraising to help get these services off the ground.

"It's important that governments not only provide services to those issues, but that they also invest in primary prevention," Ms Doyle said.

"Let's pump some money into our schools, let's have our young people change this culture of violence and discuss what a healthy relationship looks like and what to do if you're in one that's not." 

Two Teens Charged over Alleged Robbery of Computer Room at Lake Macquarie School

BY ISABEL EVERETT

Two teens have been charged after an alleged break and enter at a school in Lake Macquarie early Monday morning.

At around 1:30am, Police searched two young males, aged 13 and 14 walking along the Pacific Highway at Belmont.

They allegedly located 11 tablet computers, chargers, and a computer modem believed to be stolen from the near by school, as well as house breaking implements, face coverings and a knife.

Following inquiries, police were told that a security system was activated at 1am at a school nearby, with entry forced into a computer room.

The 14-year-old was charged with aggravated break, enter and steal in company, possess house breaking implements and custody of a knife in public place.

The 13-year-old was charged with aggravated break, enter and steal in company and possess house breaking implements.

Both were refused bail to appear at a children’s court today.

40% of Hunter Schools at Capacity

BY XANTHE GREGORY

The Labor Opposition has slammed the NSW Government for failing to deliver new schools despite the Department of Education's promises.

Freedom of Information documents revealed by the party show nearly 40% of schools across the Hunter are at capacity.

Education Minister Stokes vowed to build a dozen new schools every year to cope with increased pressure on schools, but Labor claim $870,000 has been spent transporting demountables to NSW schools, with almost 4200 of those temporary structures aged at more than 20 years old.

Shadow Minster for the Hunter Kate Washington says "students in the Hunter deserve better than being crowded in cramped classrooms or forced to learn in demountables."

Jihad Dib, Shadow Minster for Education, also criticised the Government's solution saying "we have been facing increased population growth in our communities for some time and the Liberal-National government has paid lip-service to tackling the issue."

The issue of overcrowded schools is not only a problem in the Hunter as over 600 schools across the state are at or above 100% capacity.

Playgrounds Open to the Public These Holidays

BY TARA LOUIS

More Hunter schools will be open during the school holidays as part of the Share Our Space Program.

Due to its popularity amongst the community, the initiative has been expanded from 19 schools trialled during the 2017 Summer holidays.

32 schools will be open from July 9th until July 20th between 8am until 5pm.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter, Scot MacDonald, describes the program as a "win, win, win", as it not only keeps children active during holidays but keeps the facilities safe from vandalism.

"We also gave every one of these schools that are participating a $5000 grant to help upgrade their facilities," says Scot Macdonald.

To see which schools are participating in your area, go to the Department of Education's website.

Picture: Peaceful Playgrounds

Hunter Set to Share in Huge Education Investment

BY LAUREN FREEMANTLE

A new education precinct in Newcastle is just one of several projects to be funded by a state government commitment of $6-billion for NSW schools.

The precinct will see the construction of a brand new public school, as well as improvements to Newcastle High.

Callaghan College will receive new permanent teaching spaces, a replacement hall and indoor sports centre, while Speers Point and Wangi Wangi public schools are among those to benefit from upgrades.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald said there's a significant number of projects in the pipeline.

"There's a good list; we have announced Nulkaba before, but now it's Ashtonfield Public School, Bulwarra and Belmont High...additional work to come for [Hunter School of] Performing Arts, upgrades for Rutherford Public School and Hunter Sports High," he said.

The Parliamentary Secretary is confident we'll see progress in the near future.

[When the government] hands down a budget, the outlyings are for four years," he explained, "so some of that work will start quickly, some of it will take a bit of planning, but it's good to see these schools are identified now."

It comes on the same day Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced $500-million for school air-conditioning, leaving Opposition Leader Luke Foley with no option than to re-brand his election campaign.

Labor's long-touted election promise of $300-million for school air conditioning has been trumped by today's announcement, however, Shadow Education Minister Jihab Dib said it merely proves the government has no original ideas.

"When we started talking about air conditioning, originally they were being dismissive," Mr Dib said, "now what we've got is a government that says 'we're going to put money in,' but they haven't actually come up with any of the policy yet."

"If that isn't policy on the hop, I don't know what is," Jihad Dib concluded.

Scot MacDonald said he's liaising with Hunter P&C committees and is making representations to Education Minister Rob Stokes for a review into the threshold which air-conditioning funding is based on.

It's expected further details about Hunter facilities and air-conditioning will be released next week with the June 19 budget.

Premier Berejiklian meets with primary school children. Image: SMH.