Save Tharwa School

Hi all,

Keirin and I are very sad to hear this terrible news! We are so keen on sending our kids to Tharwa School when we move down in 18 months. I have included the feedback I sent to the above email for perusal:

To whom it may concern,

I must say that my family and I are horrified to find out that the school we have been planning on sending our children to is to close down at the end of the year - before they even get an opportunity to attend. This is an absolute atrocity, as it is the only primary school in the area where we own property (comprised of Tharwa and its surrounding rural locations). Now when we finally get to settle in our rural paradise, we will have to DRIVE our children for nearly half an hour to reach the next closest school - which certainly won’t be the educational environment we were searching for, when we decided to purchase property in the area. I understand that budgetary requirements do often necessitate changes, but to deprive this wonderful community
of their only educational facility is absolutely mortifying and downright unjust.

What the government thinks is a simple shift for this school population will have dire effects on the community of Tharwa and its surrounds. No longer will this be a rural centre with all necessary ammentities which will continue to flourish and grow from stength to strength. There are already many strains on families who chose rurality over a city habitation, the main one being petrol prices. By FORCING families to have to travel to be able to send their children to a regular school you are only magnifying existing difficulties and making our community less desirous in the process. How many families will want to move to a rural location that cannot provide simple services like education?

Perhaps these are the questions that need to be considered when the accountants get out their books! My husband has served in the defence force for 10 years now, and we are keen to finally find our feet, and settle into a lifestyle less frenetic. We sought an environment that could provide our family with a wonderful opportunity to settle and grow, and now the government wishes to take that chance away from us before we can even get there.

I urge you to consider the research on small educational facilities and the benefits for both students and their families - I am a teacher and understand very well how important the formative years are, and the difference the right kind of educational environment can have on the development of a child. For my own children I wish them to experience the best possible educational avenues, and the Tharwa School certainly provides this kind of environment.

Numbers are definately not the issue when discussing this particular school - current numbers put the school at 86% of capacity, and in the pre-school alone the waiting list for 2007 is already double the current capacity. These are not the statistics of a failing school with declining numbers. These facts support the truth that this school is only growing in number and popularity, in an area that has demonstrated strong growth in the last 5 years. The are always solutions, we just need to be creative in our thinking and closing the Tharwa School does not make economic, community or common sense. Please take these
concerns seriously and listen to the community you are going to so badly effect.

Yours Sincerely,

Rachael Joyce
Smiths Rd
The Angle, via THARWA

This entry was posted on Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Tharwa Supporters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.