On Thursday 29th January the Senior First Aid course will be a full day session and run from 08:45 to 16:45 and not just for forty-five minutes as indicated.
Sorry.
Philip
Friday, December 05, 2008
Error in PD Info
In spite of having been proof read by 3 staff there are some typos in the PD document I sent out earlier. The most grievous is this:
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Outing to Hillary's
The Hillary’s outing was enjoyed by all, especially those who had never seen the ocean in Australia! I noticed several Geography lessons going on, with maps being drawn on the sand. Some brave souls (including Simon and Alison) plunged into the ocean and one African student caused some concern by confidently setting out for deeper waters! The weather was perfect, the halal sausages purchased by Simon were very tasty and hundreds of photos were taken. The only hiccup was a lost wallet with lots of dollars in it but even that had a happy ending when the bus company rang at 5 pm to say a school student on a later bus run had handed it in.
Philip has emailed information about professional development in January. Please make sure that you complete the relevant form.
End of term admin procedures will be much the same as last term but I will let you know in the next few days of any changes.
Sue Shaw’s Learner Pathways course is going well, with 14 students on the books. This term it has been running for 5 hours on Mondays but next term it will be full time. It will include vocational training “taster” options such as industrial sewing, warehousing or industrial cleaning.
We are very pleased that Pat Nicolaou will be joining the Balga admin team next term. Samantha and Mary A will be working every day, which will be great for continuity.
The Circular will be published soon and deadline for contributions is 10 December.
Louise Scott sent me an email recently- she and Laurie are having a great time, touring the US. I will email her account to you all.
End of term admin procedures will be much the same as last term but I will let you know in the next few days of any changes.
Sue Shaw’s Learner Pathways course is going well, with 14 students on the books. This term it has been running for 5 hours on Mondays but next term it will be full time. It will include vocational training “taster” options such as industrial sewing, warehousing or industrial cleaning.
We are very pleased that Pat Nicolaou will be joining the Balga admin team next term. Samantha and Mary A will be working every day, which will be great for continuity.
The Circular will be published soon and deadline for contributions is 10 December.
Louise Scott sent me an email recently- she and Laurie are having a great time, touring the US. I will email her account to you all.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Market Day
Thanks to everyone who made market day such a success by collecting clothes and utensils and manning the “stalls”. Some of the proceeds will go towards a centre outing (see below).
The driving students from October have been attending the Licensing Centre during the term and the results so far have been excellent. Some of Branka’s low level students have really excelled themselves by achieving 40/40 ! Veronica continues to produce high-quality materials and worksheets for the joint AMES/ Edmund Rice project which is aimed at assisting students to pass the actual driving test.
On arrival talks are likely to be scheduled for next week and I also want to do the class photos – am students on Wednesday and pm students on Thursday. If there is a clash with an OA talk we will have to reschedule. On Friday 28 we will have a centre outing, probably to Hillary’s. A flyer will be coming out soon. I have booked the Function Room at Herb Graham Rec Centre for our regular Christmas Party on Thursday18th December.
On arrival talks are likely to be scheduled for next week and I also want to do the class photos – am students on Wednesday and pm students on Thursday. If there is a clash with an OA talk we will have to reschedule. On Friday 28 we will have a centre outing, probably to Hillary’s. A flyer will be coming out soon. I have booked the Function Room at Herb Graham Rec Centre for our regular Christmas Party on Thursday18th December.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
The personal folders used for all the CSWE documentation seem to have been a success so I thought it would be a good idea to issue all staff with a similar folder for administration info/ forms etc. This means that we should not have to issue the same material multiple times and therefore we can cut down on paper use. We will update the folders on a termly basis.
We have had an excellent response (18 students) to the Employment Pathways course, which will start on Monday in “D” Block. Sue Shaw will be teaching on the course every Monday. A projector is being installed in the classroom and we are also getting a projector for one of our “J” Block classrooms. The projectors are used in conjunction with a laptop and can show DVDs as well as Powerpoint presentations.
I will soon give a date for class photos but as I bring my camera to work every day you can ask for your class photo to be taken any time prior to the official date.
There are a number of selection panels taking place/ about to take place in the coming weeks, including Lecturer, Career Adviser and Program Coordinator positions. I will be on the panels of the two latter categories and Simon is involved in lecturer selection.
Philip has asked for suggestions for PD sessons in January. I will be forwarding ideas from recent course reports but if you have any new suggestions, please let me know
We have had an excellent response (18 students) to the Employment Pathways course, which will start on Monday in “D” Block. Sue Shaw will be teaching on the course every Monday. A projector is being installed in the classroom and we are also getting a projector for one of our “J” Block classrooms. The projectors are used in conjunction with a laptop and can show DVDs as well as Powerpoint presentations.
I will soon give a date for class photos but as I bring my camera to work every day you can ask for your class photo to be taken any time prior to the official date.
There are a number of selection panels taking place/ about to take place in the coming weeks, including Lecturer, Career Adviser and Program Coordinator positions. I will be on the panels of the two latter categories and Simon is involved in lecturer selection.
Philip has asked for suggestions for PD sessons in January. I will be forwarding ideas from recent course reports but if you have any new suggestions, please let me know
Friday, October 24, 2008
TAA
Sue Shaw writes:
"There seems to be some confusion about how long students have to complete their TAA certificate. So just to clarify for everyone, Eric Findlay has advised that you have 12 months from the date of enrolment (RPL) or 12 months from the date of the first workshop you attended."
For more info on this see the PD web site
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Apologies for the late start to the term's blogging but have had little time to apply myself!
Some classes are still a bit unsettled but hopefully by next week there will be fewer transfers happening. There have been very few students requesting a change of class; changes have been initiated by teachers which is great.
Yesterday we had a visit from 30 delegates attending the AUSCO conference in Perth. AUSCO delivers pre-departures short courses to humanitarian students all over the globe and a few delegates met students they knew from overseas while they were here. Thanks to Sonia for helping me to gather together handouts and info sheets at very short notice. Just as the coach was about to leave we had a "Balga moment" when a plaintive cry was heard from the disabled toilet- one of our visitors had locked themselves in! She just could not work out the dual locking system and in spite of our best efforts she was unable to get out. The coach had to leave and we called Security for assistance. Ken was unable to help so he phoned Willie the handyman who was just coming into sight when the blushing delegate finally managed to escape.
Mary Aitken will be away for four weeks on annual leave- she and Paul are driving across the Nullarbor to South Australia and Victoria. Meanwhile Charmaine is in Kalbarri for two weeks so we will be a bit short-staffed in the office.
This weekend marks the start of daylight saving so no doubt a number of students will be an hour late on Monday- hopdfully not too many!
Some classes are still a bit unsettled but hopefully by next week there will be fewer transfers happening. There have been very few students requesting a change of class; changes have been initiated by teachers which is great.
Yesterday we had a visit from 30 delegates attending the AUSCO conference in Perth. AUSCO delivers pre-departures short courses to humanitarian students all over the globe and a few delegates met students they knew from overseas while they were here. Thanks to Sonia for helping me to gather together handouts and info sheets at very short notice. Just as the coach was about to leave we had a "Balga moment" when a plaintive cry was heard from the disabled toilet- one of our visitors had locked themselves in! She just could not work out the dual locking system and in spite of our best efforts she was unable to get out. The coach had to leave and we called Security for assistance. Ken was unable to help so he phoned Willie the handyman who was just coming into sight when the blushing delegate finally managed to escape.
Mary Aitken will be away for four weeks on annual leave- she and Paul are driving across the Nullarbor to South Australia and Victoria. Meanwhile Charmaine is in Kalbarri for two weeks so we will be a bit short-staffed in the office.
This weekend marks the start of daylight saving so no doubt a number of students will be an hour late on Monday- hopdfully not too many!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Adult Learners' Week Awards
On Thursday a group of staff and student representatives attended the Adult Learners’ Awards evening at the Novotel Langley. It was a very successful night and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly. We had nominated the literacy classes for the vegetable garden project and they were entered in the “Outstanding Group of Learners” category. We expected the standard would be high, as it was not an award specifically for migrants, so everyone was delighted when they were given a special “Highly Commended” award, the only nominees to receive such an accolade. A student from the Victoria won the “Outstanding Migrant Learner” award. Thanks to Branka, Veronica and Anna for accompanying the students and making it such a special event.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Footy Tipping Finale
On Tuesday we had a morning tea to celebrate the end of the footy tipping competition. The men managed to maintain their dominance to the end, with Chris winning by a single point from Simon and Andrew a further point behind. The girls took defeat with good grace (all the knives have now been removed). Many thanks to Branka for all her work and also for the magnificent cake!
CSWE. Thanks to Philip, Clare and Simon for organising the one hour session for staff- it was very productive. Chris and I will be holding a similar session for evening class teachers on Monday 8 September at 6 pm. We will have one more session before the end of term, mainly to explain what ARMS will record automatically and what will have to be done manually. Also thanks to Mary Aitken for all the work she is putting in organising and re-formatting tasks, a tiresome but vital process.
On September 11th AMES are holding a celebration at Thornlie to mark the successful transfer of the Victoria to Swan. The director of the AMEP and our contract manager from Canberra will be over here for an annual contract meeting, so they will be attending the function, together with other dignitaries.
Staff News. We were very sorry to farewell Alfredo- his time at Balga has been brief but many of us have known him for many years and AMES will miss his expertise greatly. Our sympathy goes to Elyse, whose mother passed away last week. Thankfully her end was peaceful and both Elyse and her brother were with her. We are hopeful that Wanjira will make it back from Kenya in the not too distant future; her 3 week stay has been extended owing to flight problems. No doubt she’s overcoming her disappointment by having more makeovers- I hope we recognise her when she gets back!
Afsoun will now be here regularly on Wednesday and Thursday, so teachers can make referrals knowing that students will be seen.
On September 11th AMES are holding a celebration at Thornlie to mark the successful transfer of the Victoria to Swan. The director of the AMEP and our contract manager from Canberra will be over here for an annual contract meeting, so they will be attending the function, together with other dignitaries.
Staff News. We were very sorry to farewell Alfredo- his time at Balga has been brief but many of us have known him for many years and AMES will miss his expertise greatly. Our sympathy goes to Elyse, whose mother passed away last week. Thankfully her end was peaceful and both Elyse and her brother were with her. We are hopeful that Wanjira will make it back from Kenya in the not too distant future; her 3 week stay has been extended owing to flight problems. No doubt she’s overcoming her disappointment by having more makeovers- I hope we recognise her when she gets back!
Afsoun will now be here regularly on Wednesday and Thursday, so teachers can make referrals knowing that students will be seen.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
First of all, please note the new link to Philips' PD site. Keep an eye on this in order to follow developments in the new CSWE.
The Family Connections sessions ( running over three weeks) which started on Tuesday were a great success -Mary and Julie were very pleased with the response from students, who became very involved with discussion about parenting issues, changing roles between husbands and wives etc
Congratulations to Mary for her contribution to a very useful set of publications in a number of languages now produced by the Dept of Planning and Infrastructure which will be of great assistance to recently arrived migrants in engaging successfully in the process of obtaining a Driver's Licence in WA. These information sheets are also downloadable from the DPI website.
Still on the topic of driving, Mary and Veronica have been heavily involved in setting up (together with the Edmund Rice Centre) the SGP CaLD DL project, funded by DIAC. The purpose of this project is to assist migrants to pass the actual driving test. Veronica is concentrating on the language required in driving instruction and yesterday I received an email describing how she was going: “ I sat in the car with a teacher from Defensive Driving for a few hours today, and noted a lot of dialogue and phrases used by the instructor and the student. I met with the teacher at Kelmscott Licensing and we went to 2 student's houses and had the lessons. It was a great experience and I'm looking forward to arranging another 'sit-in' next wed north of the river, hopefully with a less experienced driver .I've taken several photographs and done some worksheets with these on parts of the car and some sheets on 'cab drill' what to do when you get in the car.”
Union news: Alison reports that there is little positive news in the attempt to secure a new TAFE Agreement. “ In summary, there is a difficult time ahead, and certainly no imminent prospect of a pay rise, and apparently if it goes to arbitration, back pay does not happen. It looks as if nothing is going to be resolved for a long time, possibly going into next year. That's unless a surprise offer is given to us before arbitration.”
On 4 September Branka, Veronica, Anna and I will be taking 4 students to the Adult Learners’ Awards night at the Langley. The students will represent all the literacy students who were nominated for the “Outstanding Group of Learners” award.
Thursday 4 September will also be the day for class photos (all classes to be taken on the same day).
We have all been enjoying the Beijing Olympics and students have been taking a keen interest on the daily updates, medal tables and photos Simon and I have been posting on a display board outside the ILC.
The Family Connections sessions ( running over three weeks) which started on Tuesday were a great success -Mary and Julie were very pleased with the response from students, who became very involved with discussion about parenting issues, changing roles between husbands and wives etc
Congratulations to Mary for her contribution to a very useful set of publications in a number of languages now produced by the Dept of Planning and Infrastructure which will be of great assistance to recently arrived migrants in engaging successfully in the process of obtaining a Driver's Licence in WA. These information sheets are also downloadable from the DPI website.
Still on the topic of driving, Mary and Veronica have been heavily involved in setting up (together with the Edmund Rice Centre) the SGP CaLD DL project, funded by DIAC. The purpose of this project is to assist migrants to pass the actual driving test. Veronica is concentrating on the language required in driving instruction and yesterday I received an email describing how she was going: “ I sat in the car with a teacher from Defensive Driving for a few hours today, and noted a lot of dialogue and phrases used by the instructor and the student. I met with the teacher at Kelmscott Licensing and we went to 2 student's houses and had the lessons. It was a great experience and I'm looking forward to arranging another 'sit-in' next wed north of the river, hopefully with a less experienced driver .I've taken several photographs and done some worksheets with these on parts of the car and some sheets on 'cab drill' what to do when you get in the car.”
Union news: Alison reports that there is little positive news in the attempt to secure a new TAFE Agreement. “ In summary, there is a difficult time ahead, and certainly no imminent prospect of a pay rise, and apparently if it goes to arbitration, back pay does not happen. It looks as if nothing is going to be resolved for a long time, possibly going into next year. That's unless a surprise offer is given to us before arbitration.”
On 4 September Branka, Veronica, Anna and I will be taking 4 students to the Adult Learners’ Awards night at the Langley. The students will represent all the literacy students who were nominated for the “Outstanding Group of Learners” award.
Thursday 4 September will also be the day for class photos (all classes to be taken on the same day).
We have all been enjoying the Beijing Olympics and students have been taking a keen interest on the daily updates, medal tables and photos Simon and I have been posting on a display board outside the ILC.
Staff News
Many thanks to Barbara for so capably filling in for Elyse, who has just returned from 4 weeks in Malaysia. Wanjira is having a great time in Kenya- pampering herself being a major aim, it would seem! “My holiday is fantastic - very relaxing. Spent the entire afternoon today at the salon being pampered with manicure, pedicure etc and massage - all for less than $100 including tip!”
Congratulations
STOP PRESS Yesterday Christine and Bernard became grandparents for the first time. It’s a girl, Nicola
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