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
April 5th, 2010 at 5:13 am
so what do you think?
February 20th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
I very much like this blog. Yet time I will come here
November 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I occasionally go driving\riding around the cotter and Tharwa.
It’s a gorgeous little community and I think the kiddies should have their school, please don’t take away their school!
September 8th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Just leave Tharwa School alone, there is a community there and children and the school provides this special community and a place for children to go with out travelling.
JUST LEAVE THARWA ALONE
September 5th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
this is unfare our kids were raised at tharwa school and it should be kept because it is a loyale place to be!
March 25th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I want to send my kids there!!!
December 9th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
The ACT Government’s decision to close 39 schools beggars belief. I cannot think of a more socially disruptive and destructive policy. Who are the fools who think this is a good idea?
Please find below an email I sent to Getup and to everyone in my address book on behalf of you who are affected by this stupid and callous decision. I live in a small community myself, and know what disruption there would be to current and future generations if the local school were to be threatened.
Good Luck. and may good sense prevail.
Dear All,
I would like to bring to your attention an autocratic, socially irresponsible decision by the ACT government, made for financial reasons and introduced by stealth, that will affect thousands of small children for years to come and cause major social disruption in the ACT.
The current ACT Government is going through the ludicrous step of closing 39 public schools, many of them in thriving small communities. The idea is to set up large, central schools and cram students into these sheep pens.
This is disastrous from an educational viewpoint, but even more so from a social viewpoint.
For many small communities the focal point to community building is the local primary school, where people and their children meet, form ongoing relationships and join together in local causes. To wipe out 39 schools in one fell swoop is socially disruptive, unnecessary, and damaging to local communities. People who have bought houses near schools thinking they could walk their children to school, people who have entered their children in local preschools hoping they would get to know their future classmates, teachers and students already who have already formed ties with small local schools are in for a massive upheaval.
The scary thing is that this is going through with barely a whimper. A few letters published in local newspapers, teachers being intimidated by their employers not to speak out, an education minister and government that don’t seem to care that no one wants this.
No-one thinks this is a good idea. This immensely socially disruptive policy is being implemented purely to save money, and with no apologies. There have been a few lame attempts to defend the policy but it is blatantly obvious that the well being of the next generation of primary school children is being sacrificed to improve the budget, so that money can be spent on higher priorities, like a speedway for example.
The ACT Government aimsd to replace these small schools with large “super schools”, however the disadvantages of the type of education are well documented. In the US, where the large central school experiment has been played out to it’s disastrous but obvious consequences it has been found to cause increases in social isolation, peer pressure, and a reduced ability to relate to people not of the same age, clothing and hairstyle. Embedding children with large groups of the same age has been well documented to create an insular environment, retarding emotional development. As this group approaches 200 the psychological “tribal limits” are reached and children cannot relate well to those outside their immediate peer group, who are considered “other”.
Anyway, the purpose of this email is not to go into the various psychological reasons why this is a disruptive and completely irresponsible social policy, the reasons should be self evident. (You don’t need a double blinded crossover trial to tell you that parachutes make a difference to those falling from planes.)
This thing has got me angry on behalf of those affected. I am angry because it is such a retrograde step in education and so against well accepted developmental and educational principles. I am angry because of the social disruption to the thousands of people whose schools, and whose children’s schools simply will not be there next year.
I am thankful that I live outside (on the edge) of the ACT, and the small local school that my wife went to, that my children go to (the same teachers), and that unmistakeably binds together the local community, will not be destroyed by misguided and simple minded bean counters who do not have the best interests of the community at heart.
Regards
Dr Stephen Myers
December 1st, 2006 at 1:49 pm
I was a student at Tharwa Primary over 10 years ago and was a Tharwa resident for many years after I graduated from the school. I could not have asked for a better start to life. The schools approach to learing encouraged individuality, creativity and acceptance of people from all walks of life. All the people I know who attended Tharwa primary over the years have grown into well rounded, successful individuals. The school is not only a learning institution but the heart of the village community. PLEASE DON”T CLOSE DOWN THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE ACT!
December 1st, 2006 at 12:59 am
Small school should not be lost– part of Australia’s history and values. Tharwa school is an ideal situation for students from larger less personal schools to visit. An example of what education should be.
School is the heart of the community.
November 14th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Save our wonderful small schools. We are going through the same problem here in Grafton NY. We will continue to fight for what is best for the students not what fits the budget formula. I hope you do too.