Petition to Save Tharwa School
The ACT Government is set to close Tharwa Primary and Pre-Schools. Tharwa is the oldest school in the ACT with much historical and heritage value. Tharwa primary delivers real educational outcomes for families who have chosen to educate their children in a small school environment.
To close Tharwa would be to ‘close down’ the Tharwa community, which has been recovering from the devastating 2003 bushfires.
Please sign our petition to support the Tharwa Primary School and the Tharwa community.
Tharwa School Motto - Students In Harmony With Each Other And The Environment Experiencing Success and Challenge - A Century of Learning 1899-1999
June 20th, 2006 at 11:20 am
I can not see the equity in small private schools, that are not meeting thier capacities, are not getting their funding withdrawn. I can not afford to send my child to a private school, so I chose a comparable one in the public system. If tharwa was not available, where is my choice based on my income.
My son attened Charles Conder Primary. Due to a congnitive disability he can not cope with the noise and comotion that comes with a large school environment. My son was also being bullied. The principal at the time, told my son if being bullied yell back at them as loud as you can. Other teachers basically shugged thier shoulders.
He then started to get physically abused. He was being stabbed with a pencil by a particular student. When I persued the issue the teacher said well there is nothing I can do about it. On top of that they were sarcastic and demeaning.
Their only advice was to send my son to the library. My son at 5 years, started showing sign of depression and acute anxiety. My son said he was always scared and lonely, and that his brain felt crazy. I was informed by professionals to find a more intimate school for my son. I found Tharwa.
My son is happy and loves school. He, at his pace, in a supportive environment, is learning to socialize and is gaining emotial and psychological strength. In turn his school work has improved dramatically.
My son states that at Tharwa “I feel great in my head and heart. My brain feels good indeed.”
June 19th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
We live and work on the land out here and we don’t do it for the money Messrs Stanhope and Barr. We do it because we are country people and its the life we know and love. My wife drives our kids 10k’s into Tharwa because we want them in a country school, we sure won’t be driving them a further 10 so they can go to a “superschool” and grow up to become dollar driven idealists like you blokes who think they know whats best for everyone. Live and let live gentlemen, I don’t begrudge you your city living or Universities please don’t begrudge us our small schools and rural values.
June 19th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
Our two boys started at Tharwa primary part way through the first term this year.
Our reasons for this change from Charles Conder to Tharwa are many, but the most important to us was to give them the best education.
We as many other parents believed that this is in a smaller school environment.
Due to the over population of classes in bigger schools, too many children with learning problems are either lost in the system or over looked. A perfect example of this is our oldest son who was picked up as having learning problems in kindergarten at Charles Conder, but by the time he was in year one nothing was being done to help him.
While at Charles Conder he would be physically sick of a morning and not want to go to school. Since he has been at Tharwa he gets up in the morning, happy to get ready to go to school. No more sicknesses.
Mr Stanhope you say there are systems in the bigger schools for kids like him,
We have tried the bigger schools and found these systems you talk about, DO NOT WORK.
Not only is it a shame that you want to close Tharwa Primary
But if you do this you’re killing this lovely community where people actually care about each other and the environment sending these children some of which have never experienced a larger school environment could only be disastress for them. Our children are our future what are you doing to them and our community!!!
June 19th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
I think the govt has no moral to close the school. It is imperative that the parents, teachers and the community be consulted. If anything, the school may need support to upgrade it’s infrastucture. Schools are not to be traeted like hardware shops. Lives are being formed and transformed in schools. I am conviced therefore that the timing for the closure is immoral and uncalled for, and poorly thought of.
More consultation is needed, and actually, the school should be empowered. I see Tharwa Pre-school as an excellent laboratory of how nature bonds with nurture.
ndekezi
June 19th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Please don’t close down Tharwa Primary. This has been my first year here and I love it. I was at Gordon Primary school for 3 years but i was being bullied. My parents spoke to my teachers to try & stop this problem but the teachers didn’t do anything about it. Since then i have moved to Tharwa where i have made new friends & don’t have any issues.
Tharwa is a good place. Like our song say’s
What’s a little place that’s like a village
With a shop that’s run by Val,
It’s a world away from the Canberra suburbs,
and everyone there, they can be your pal?
It’s Tharwa,Thawa, Tharwa is its name…….
June 19th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
As landholders in the area keen to finally move out of the hustle of city life, and offer our children a wonderful, wholesome life in the beautiful rural surrounds of Tharwa, this closure notice has been a real shock. Don’t take away the opportunity for our children to learn and grow in the community that we have chosen to become our home.
Truly make public education a “real choice” by allowing the community to have one!! If Tharwa school is closed, public education in our community will not be an option. We want to send our children to a school with real roots in the area, which can offer an individualised educational program to best meet the needs of our little people. As a teacher and a parent, I know the value of personalised instruction. Large schools are not able to offer a conducive learning environment for all students, and regardless, we as parents should be given a variety of options when it comes to the provision of educational for our children. What is more important than them?
June 19th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Tharwa school was attended by both my children and had unique and special qualities, offering a caring and supportive environment as well as excellent education. Small schools like Tharwa offer children the chance to flourish, feel part of a real community and develop individuaity and independance. To close such a great school and make the current students attend a large, more impersonal school runs the risk of jeopordising their well being and seems completely unnecessary. Aren’t we trying to create more sense of community? Keep Tharwa open or you certainly won’t get my vote!
June 19th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
We chose Tharwa school for our children due to its solid and consistent reputation. It represents traditional vaules in modern society, values which form an important foundation on which to guide our children through the most important times in their lives. Tharwa school provides an excellent standard of education and should be allowed to continue to do so. It’s a special school and it should remain available to all children for many many years.
June 19th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
I do not know why I find this school closure any different to way the Stanhope government have mismanaged, and tried to cover the truth just the way they have in the aftermath of the 2003 bushfires. Yet again, we are left to fend for ourselves.
Mr Stanhope, you have left our children feeling that the government does not want to nuture, or protect a truly bush school with unique attributes in an ever declining educational system.
Shame on you.
June 19th, 2006 at 10:22 am
I place a high value on our ACT rural communities; I wish we had more. Please preserve the diversity that Tharwa provides & the strength in its community.