weekender the western
Printed on 100% recycled paper
FRI 6 JUN 2014 • Issue 1156
Liam goes to Rio!
PROUDLY INDEPENDENT
Business Advice, tips and profiles on the best local businesses p.30-31
The great air con?
Built just six years ago, somehow this school has no air conditioning CASSANDRA O’CONNOR
Act of kindness sparks a big win Back page
Girl power in the AFL p.38
Werrington stabbing Victims fight back in dramatic robbery p.6
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T
emperatures can soar into the mid-30s or even higher during summer at Ropes Crossing Public School, but despite being built just six years ago, the school has no air conditioning – and the fight’s on to change it. The School’s Parents and Citizens Committee has been working tirelessly since the school was built in 2008 to raise funds for air conditioning units to be installed in the classrooms, but it’s a mammoth effort. “The school was built in 2008 to be environmentally friendly and maximise things like air cross flows and breezes, but living in western Sydney, those summer days just don’t let up,” said P&C member Nicole Rowan, whose daughter has attended the school for the last three years. “When the kids come home they just look exhausted and you cannot imagine that they’d be working hard in those sorts of conditions.” So, the Committee has held cake stall after cake stall, barbecue after barbecue to raise the funds required for the air conditioning and in six years they have raised $17,000. “The school is so supportive and the Principal, Mrs Jackson, she is just an incredibly lovely person to work with and she understands that we are doing this for her school,” Mrs Rowan said. “We have had big baking days, sold cakes at the St Marys Spring Festival and done countless Bunnings barbecues and we have raised $17,000. “But our last estimates were that it would cost $40,000 to do the whole school.” Story continues on » p. 8
Committee member Nicole Rowan, Prue Car and Committee President Barb Goodchild
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