Click on the link to see Tim Berryman, the Principal of Fitzroy Community School in Melbourne, as he appeared on The Project. He also appeared on Sunrise, 774 and 6PR and in The Age.It is great to see such stories and Tim’s effective communication happening in the media.
ADEC CONFERENCE 2018
Hello & welcome to the new year
Isn’t it great to belong to a community with others that value & further democratic education for children. To nurture this community ADEC holds an annual conference so ideas can be shared and the community enlivened.
The 2018 conference is being hosted by Pine Community School in Brisbane on 28-30 September. Mark the dates in the calendar so you don’t miss out; because it won’t be the same without you.
We will spend the weekend thinking, talking, listening and being “community, connection and celebration”.
Look out for further information about the weekend in emails, on the ADEC website and facebook page. Share this invitation to attend with your school community, colleagues and students.
Nerida Jaaniste
Pine parent on behalf of Pine Community School
ADEC Newsletters Nos 23 & 24
ADEC Newsletter 23 & 24
Reports of IDEC2017 in Israel, attended by Cec and APDEC2017 in Japan, attended by Chris, Jesse and Cec, can now be found on the Newsletters page.
News Articles about Eagle Arts & Vocational College
School Closure Threat
Some of you will remember Gab Macintosh and her school, Blacktown Youth College who were part of our group from the beginning. We lost touch with Gab for a number of years but this year we have been in touch again and I learnt that she had set up another school called Eagle Arts and Vocational College with three campuses in Broken Hill, Western Sydney and the Central Coast. Gab has been keen for the school to become part of ADEC. As with BYC, the students at these schools have often had troubled histories within their families, their education and some with the justice system. Gab has always been one to champion them and try to find ways to enable them to change their lives and create some educational paths ways which work for them. The school recently has had the disturbing news that the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) has decided to close them down. Like all these situation the story is long and complicated but is very upsetting and perplexing for the school community especially as they have had 5 inspections in the last 18 months and just two weeks prior to the final negative inspection they had passed an inspection. Gab told me that she had written an article for the local paper and this was apparently reported to the board and they came for another inspection virtually the next day. It was this inspection that prompted the judgement that they were not a proper school. Gab has not really been able to establish why one group of inspectors’ decision was completely overturned. The school worked with a compliance expert and even this process did not result in a change of decision. In fact any attempt to allow time to work on issues or work on appeals has resulted in the decision being brought forward.
Gab is aware that other small alternative schools have also been having more difficult processes of inspection and wonders if some change of culture has occurred within the Authority which is now making it much harder to comply?
Gab has sent a request of support from ADEC. She mentioned three possible ways we might be able to do this.
In the past Gab has been successful in getting the media to respond to issues about the schools but at the moment no one is responding to the story at all. She asked if anyone has any contacts in the media who might be prepared to listen to the story and give it some attention to please let her know.
Letters of support to the politicians and bureaucrats would also be appreciated. We agreed that the people to focus on are the Premier, The Minister for Education and the Shadow Minister for Education, the Treasurer as he is the local member for plus the local members of Broken Hill and Central Coast.
The school is considering a protest gathering outside Parliament House on 21st Nov and they would appreciate if others felt able to join them in support. This is not definite yet but I will keep you up to date if it is going ahead.
Cec will draft letters from ADEC but I am sure that Gab and the school communities would also appreciate it is any other individuals and other schools wrote as well.
Some Contact details
Phone (02) 8574 5000
Fax (02) 9339 5500
Contact the Premier https://www.nsw.gov.au/contact-us/contact-the-premier/
Perrottet, Dominic In his capacity as Treasurer, and Minister for Industrial Relations:
Stokes, Rob In his capacity as Minister for Education:
Phone (02) 8574 6707
Fax (02) 9339 5554
Fax (02) 9339 5554
Humphries, Kevin In his capacity as Member for Barwon:
Phone (02) 6792 1422Fax (02) 6792 1466
barwon@parliament.nsw.gov.au
Tesch, Liesl In her capacity as Member for Gosford:
Foley, Luke In his capacity as Member for Auburn: and as Leader of the Opposition
Dib, Jihad In his capacity as Member for Lakemba: and as Shadow Minister for Education
ADEC Newsletters
Reports of IDEC@EUDEC2016 can now be found as ADEC Newsletter No 20.
Reports of APDEC2016 can now be found as ADEC Newsletter No21.
Reports of ADEC Conference 2106 can now be founds as ADEC Newsletter No 22.
You can find all these reports on the Newsletters page.
International Democratic Education Network Newsletter, September 2016
International Democratic Education Network Newsletter, September 2016. EUDEC @ IDEC in Finland.
ADEC LOGO
A new ADEC logo has been designed and is in provisional use. It will be presented at the ADEC AGM being held on 27th September 2016 at Koonwarra Village School and a decision made as to its use in the future. The logo is attached here for your comments.
ADEC CONFERENCE 2016
ADEC CONFERENCE 2016
Hope to see many of you at the ADEC 2016 Conference. Early bird registration closes at the end of August so there is still time to take advantage of this.