Council News
THE NSW ADULT LITERACY
&
NUMERACY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER
JUNE 2004
www.nswalnc.uts.edu.au
A Matter of Age
The latest in our series of
professional development
forums - A Matter of Age –
was a fantastic day, full of
ideas from passionate and
inspiring literacy and
numeracy people. Around 50 of
us shared our ideas, caught up
with one another, and learned
about the great work of our
colleagues.
A highlight of the day was a
very moving speech by Mark
Collyer, the winner of our
prize for most outstanding
entry in the Journeys student
writing publication.
Mark is a Randwick TAFE
literacy student, who has been
working with teacher, Judy
Cameron. Mark brought a wry
smile to everyone’s faces
talking about his feelings
surrounding literacy
difficulties. ‘Every time you
get asked to fill in a form,
it’s like having a policeman
tap you on the shoulder’’ said
Mark.
Another wonderful connection
for us in the field is that
Mark first heard about
literacy help through The
Reading Writing Hotline. It’s
great to see the pieces in our
jigsaw puzzle fitting together
so successfully, so that
PO Box K450 Haymarket NSW 1240
ABN 270 198 490 66
someone like Mark can be
reached through the Hotline,
make contact with a class,
work on his reading and
writing, and go on to win an
award for a great story.
You can read Mark’s hilariousbut horrifying - story in
your own copy of Blue Sky
Bicycle and other journeys
enclosed, and look out for
our next professional
development forum in October
as usual.
QuickTime™ and a
Photo - JPEG decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
proud abe student, Mark
Collyer, poses with his copy
of Blue Sky Bicycle and other
journeys
A New Executive
Council’s AGM was held after A
Matter of Age, and we’re
excited to have a new
President, Treasurer and some
new faces on the executive.
Welcome to Michael O’Hara from
Ph: (02) 9514 3973
Fax: (02) 9514 3030
Parramatta College (ACE), our
new President. Michael’s name
will be familiar to quite a
few of you from his time at
several community colleges
around the state.
Congratulations also to Keiko
Yasukawa, our new Treasurer
taking over Council’s
financial reins from Jillian
Blakey. Keiko will also be
well known to many of us
through her work with UTS
Language & Literacy (and
Numeracy!) programs over the
years. Most of our other
hardworking executive members
are continuing their work with
the Council for another year –
with our heartfelt thanks.
And, we’re delighted that
Maggie Sinclair and Kaye
Watkins, both from Ultimo
TAFE, have joined our
Executive.
Remember, we’re always happy
to have other interested
people on the Executive, so if
you’re interested in getting
involved, just give us a ring.
Ride the Blue Sky
Bicycle!
Your member’s copy of the
Bicycle is enclosed, but we
know that lots of you will
want to get hold of more
copies for your classrooms and
centres – they make a great
teaching resource!
Order
some extras today on the order
form enclosed – Only $10 a
copy, or buy five and get one
free.
This price just covers
our production and postage
costs, so we hope you’ll order
a set for your centre.
PO Box K450 Haymarket NSW 1240
198 490 66
Literacy issues in the
election
We’re interested that reading
and literacy are getting a
mention in the lead up to the
Federal election, particularly
in the proposal to give
parents a $700 cheque to “fix
“ their children’s literacy
problems.
As workers in the
field, we know that $700 will
not buy very much tutoring,
and that literacy difficulties
require much more than a
couple of months of added-on
teaching. We would hope that
other more long-term and
systematic solutions,
including family literacy
projects where parents’
literacy can also be
addressed, might be
considered.
Keep your eye on
this and other educationrelated issues over the next
few months!
Projects of interest
A number of providers have
recently won funding under
Reframing the Future or
Learnscope programs, which
will bring people together and
increase our skills in various
areas.
Adult & Community Education
have won Learnscope funding to
run a program to create a
statewide platform for a
communication hub for online
training and moderation.
Parramatta College has an elearning project to bring
casual teachers together for
workshops on computer
literacy.
We hear that
Debbie Littlehales from Kiama
Community College, and Jan
Ph: (02) 9514 3973
Fax: (02) 9514 3030
ABN 270
Hatton from Walcha Adult
Education Centre have been
nominated as Flexible Learning
Leaders.
And did you know that in the
area of volunteer programs,
AMES and the Smith Family have
been working together since
last July as part of a
consortium? The Smith Family
runs the AMES volunteer tutor
program, whilst AMES trains
the tutors for the whole of
the Sydney area, and also in a
couple of regional locations
including Coffs Harbour. They
are currently looking at
online training. Also under
the AMES umbrella, the English
@AMES e-learning project is
continuing, though with some
delays due to a technical
hitch. Addressing CSWE levels
2 and 3, the project will be
starting trials shortly and
apparently looks great and is
easy to navigate. The project
is based in Mary St in Sydney
but will be supported by local
e-learning support teachers at
various locations. And
finally, Wollongong Library is
currently seeking funding to
run a family literacy program
called 'Born to Read'
Do you know of other
interesting projects??? Let
us know!
PO Box K450 Haymarket NSW 1240
198 490 66
Ph: (02) 9514 3973
Fax: (02) 9514 3030
ABN 270