NAB Schools First Student Award Winners Announced
4 July 2011
Five outstanding student-led school-community partnership ideas have been recognised with the announcement today of the inaugural NAB Schools First Student Award Winners.
The five winning schools will be rewarded with $2,000 to implement the school-community partnership idea, while the eight students involved will each receive an Apple iPad. Each winning student, along with a teacher from their school, will attend a Student Award Workshop in Melbourne in November to help them further develop their partnership idea.
The 2011 NAB Schools First Student Award Winners are:
- Ali Amood and Adam Alahmad from Granville Boys High School (NSW) - their partnership idea is with Granville RSL to help run a student cafe in the mornings before school classes begin to provide students with healthy breakfast choices in a safe environment.
- Brooke Snow from Atherton State High School (QLD) - her partnership idea is with the Atherton Lions Club and other local community organisations to introduce and connect students in each year level to a particular local community through a program to be called Community Connect.
- Thea Debler-Depold from Westminster School (SA) - her partnership idea with CARA - an accommodation facility for children with a disability - will see students from the school volunteering their time to go on camps with CARA's special needs kids.
- Amnah and Maryam Arain from Al Siraat College (VIC) – their partnership idea with Bicycle Victoria is to set up a ‘bike bus' for students to get to school. This concept aims to combat obesity in school-aged children and provides a safe way for students to get to school.
- Kasim Ibrahim and Michael Schreiber from River Gum Primary School (VIC) – their partnership idea is with Victoria Police and their New Emerging Communities Liaison Officer (NECLO) to organise a family fun day soccer match aimed at encouraging trust, respect and communication between local youths and the police.
This is the first year that NAB Schools First has provided a Student Award category to amplify the ideas and voices of the most important people in the school system – the students. Over 140 applications were received and acting Head of NAB Schools First, Belinda Allitt, is delighted by the calibre of school-community partnership ideas that students have come up with.
"The quality of work shown in the applications was outstanding. This is a tremendous effort for the inaugural year of this award that has really set the bar high," said Allitt.
"It's great to see young students developing fresh, innovative and effective ideas to help their local communities. It will be interesting to see these winning ideas build throughout this year. Hopefully it will inspire more students to get involved with school-community initiatives and ultimately strengthen their community networks," she said.
Thank you to every student from across Australia who submitted an application and congratulations to all of our award winners.
