AROUND THE SCHOOLS
Silkwood State School end first term on a positive note MARIA GIRGENTI SILKWOOD State School started the first term of the year on a positive note with 62 students and six Preps who have settled in well to routines, are already focused on learning and displayed exemplary behaviour. The school community welcomed Acting Principal Sandra Clarris who is based at Tully State High School and currently works as the cluster Head of Special Education Services (HOSES) for the eight primary schools in Ulysses cluster (Tully). Ms Clarris has been involved in education for 26 years having previously worked as a Special Education Program (SEP) teacher, stage leader, curriculum coordinator and other acting Principal roles. She will be teaching Years 4/5/6 three days per week while at Silkwood. Naomi Smith who was previously from Sydney has been in the far north region for five years. Ms Smith works one day per week at Tully State High teaching Years 7/8/9/11 and will be teaching Years 4/5/6 two days per week at Silkwood. Rebecca Albert is the new guidance officer at the school who will
MARIA GIRGENTI
Teacher Lynette McLeish and teacher aide Alison Green with Silkwood State School Prep students. be available to support students, will be used to inform teaching and teachers, parents and carers every learning. Schools will then use this second Tuesday with counselling, data to form reading groups, design assessment and individual support in intervention and extension programs a range of ways in educational, beto support all students in becoming havioural, social/emotional, mental health and personal issues that may the best readers and writers. be affecting learning and well-being. Students have been involved in Students follow the school motto dance troupe on Fridays and recently Keep on Keeping On and the new participated in National Day of Acsystem of Silkwood Superstars tion Against Bullying as they joined where students who uphold the three with over 2.4 million students in pillars of Be Safe, Be Respectful and schools across Australia to take acBe A Learner are acknowledged. tion and empower young people to There will be a strong focus on readbe part of the solution when addressing, writing and literacy, as well as explicit teaching and consistent lan- ing bullying. The P & C Association recently guage around positive behaviour. In following the Australian Curricu- purchased a number of new library lum there will also be an emphasis books for students to enjoy and Year on teacher collaboration, as well as 4, 5 and 6 students took part in the the physical and emotional wellbe- Silkwood Mena Creek Sports Assoing of staff and students. ciation soccer/netball carnival held Silkwood State School Acting Princi- Pedagogy coach Rae Heywood who at Innisfail State College. pal, Sandra Clarris with Jessica (Ellison is at the school for a half day every For school enrolments and playhouse captain), Sophie (school cap- Thursday has been working with tain), Paige (school captain) and Griffin students to establish baseline data in group enquiries, please contact 4065 the four areas of literacy - speaking, 1333 or via email: principal@silk(Barnard house captain). listening, reading and writing which woodss.eq.edu.au
It is great to get back to this column after nearly four weeks away, time which included work trips to China and one to Brisbane. This week is a significant one for the Tully sugar industry as we have been running the annual grower breakfast meetings from April 16-18. Breakfast meetings have been a feature of the sugar industry for some time now and this year, like previous years, we have presented a range of topics relating to sustainable sugar cane production. One feature of these meetings the last few years is the launch of the “Tully New Variety Guide” which is a simple presentation of local trial data collected by the
Tully Variety Management group on the many new varieties now available to Tully growers. This work has been discussed before and is really a simple process of gathering data on how new varieties germinate, their CCS curve, trends over a set time span and how they grow in the field. Since 2012 there have been 16 new varieties released by SRA for the Wet Tropics region. This is basically double the number that was released a decade before and as advances are made in plant breeding, so too comes the challenge of obtaining lcoal knowledge quickly so that growers can make better decisions for planting.
South Johnstone State School support local Red Cross branch with Red and White Day
Other topics discussed at these breakfast meetings include TCSPL information on where the new clean seed plots are located in the district, and what specific varieties are available in these plots. These clean seed plots are vital to the industry as they are the access point to new varieties as well as the source of clean seed for older proven varieties. A great deal of communication and planning goes into their establishment throughout the district. TCPSL also present a range of information on herbicide use, the BMP accreditation process and also outline features of the recently released CAPA reports for Tully
RED and White Day was recently held at South Johnstone State School to celebrate the work of Red Cross and raise funds for their local branch. Students dressed in red and white for a gold coin donation and raised $90 for the Silkwood/Kurrimine Beach Red Cross branch which is a huge effort for the small community-focused school. Members of the branch came and judged best dressed and awarded trophies to the winners, key rings to runners up and Easter eggs to all who donated. The Silkwood/Kurrimine Beach Red Cross branch which celebrated its 30th
anniversary last year helped establish the South Johnstone State School Junior Red Cross. Junior Red Cross Leaders, Maryellen Butler and Dianne Dodson are active members of the Silkwood/Kurrimine Beach branch. The Junior Red Cross visit the aged care facilities in Innisfail for important events like Mother’s and Father’s Days, as well as Christmas. They are currently working on Mother’s Day gifts and were fortunate to have local Red Cross members Helen Walsh and Colleen Smith who stayed on Red and White Day to assist with the gift making.
Silkwood/Kurrimine Beach Red Cross members with students from South Johnstone State School who were judged the best dressed at their Red and White Day.
RURAL REPORT
growers. This year we have also had the two major projects based in Tully; the Wet Tropics Sugar industry partnership (WTSIP) and the Major Integrated Project (MIP) present updates on their work to the growers attending these meetings. In addition each year we invite one of the agri business companies to sponsor the event on a rotational basis. This year the sponsors are the fertilizer company Stoller. Many sugar cane districts run similar breakfast meetings around this time of year and would present similar information, and they are fairly popular as growers prepare for planting season.
Cassowary Coast Independent News, Thursday, April 18, 2019 Page 15