Taking the Partnership Forums to the Tasman Isle - 16/04/10

Josh Levy writes:

After a successful launch of the Schools First National Partnership Forums in Melbourne, we headed south to the Tasman Isle to spread the word about Schools First for 2010.

Our first stop in Tasmania was Launceston and it definitely turned on the good weather for us - hello sunshine!

We arrived to a strong show of support from the Federal Member for Bass, Jodie Campbell, and her colleague Geoff Lyons who were both in attendance. Jodie gave a very passionate speech about the importance of school-community partnerships and articulated her support of the Schools First program. It really was a great way to kick off our Tasmanian tour.

Once again the ‘Speed Dating’ activity was very popular as each participant was keen to meet future partners and to hear from like-minded individuals who are doing great work in partnership.

The 2009 Tasmanian State Impact Award winner, Claremont College and their community partner, HIA: youthBuild, gave the participants a stirring presentation on their winning partnership and what the award has meant for them. Patrick Mainsbridge, the youthBuild project director spoke about the partnership and his advice was invaluable and very well delivered. Having our local and state winners in the room has been a real advantage in 2010!

We waved goodbye to Launceston and headed to Hobart. With with every kilometre that we drew nearer to Hobart, the more clouds appeared in the sky...we soon realised it was going to be hard to match the sunny weather of the north. Weather aside, the Hobart Partnership Forum was a real highlight for the Schools First team as we had all 2009 Tasmanian Award winners in the room – a real rarity!

The 2009 Award wnning schools - Claremont College, Gagebrook Primary School and Mt Carmel College - formed a ‘brains trust’ at the front of the room and shared their individual partnership journeys and provided valuable advice for all those listening, which made the job of the Schools First team very easy.

It was pleasing to hear that those schools at the forum who applied in 2009 said they felt a lot clearer about submitting an application in 2010 after attending this year’s forum.

One of the highlights of the evening was our young caterers from nearby Ogilvie High School. In the middle of National Youth Week, the girl’s added a great youth presence to the session!