Tiwi College Newstiwicollege.com/images/Newsletter_2013_3.pdfPort Melville at the kind invitation...

Inside this issue ...

Sport Champi-

onships

New Staff

Indigenous

Literacy Foun-

dation

School Camp

Highlights

What’s hap-

pening in

Classrooms

and FGHs

Term 3, 2013

Tiwi College News

Editor: Bronny Burger

Joint Venture with Morris Corp By Ian Smith

On Wednesday July 31st our school held a small but important ceremony in the short history of Tiwi College.

After much discussion and with legal assistance from Simon Harari (Tiwi Land Council) and Robert McRobbie, Belinda Wright and Guy Reynolds (Macquarie Bank) we were able to sign off on an agreement that we believe will be of benefit both to Morris Corporation and Tiwi College. The Joint Venture is a business entity, where we come together as one enterprise to tender for Hospitality, Catering, Accommodation opportunities on the Tiwi Islands. Morris will benefit from greater exposure to business on the Tiwi Islands

and our school benefits from easier pathways to jobs in the Hospitality areas. We thank the people of Morris Corporation for this initiative in particular Kevin Rule (Business Manager), Todd Crawford (Operations Manager, WA) and an old friend Adam Clarke, an ex-employee of Morris who was instrumental in getting this concept ‘off the ground’. We hope this will be the beginning of an excellent partnership which will be of benefit to the Tiwi.

Tiwi College

Pickertaramoor

Melville Island

NORTHERN TERRITORY

Ph: (08) 8970 9024

Fax: (08) 8970 9025

Postal address:

LMB 127

Winnellie, NT, 0822

Principal: Ian Smith

[email protected]

By Bronny Burger

Tiwi College welcomed back the Books In Homes program this term which provides students in Indigenous communi-ties around Australia with their own books to share with their families. In week 5 Jenny Reynolds and her sister Ka-ren came to the college to spend some time with the Pri-mary School while putting together the book packs for stu-dents. During the week there were plenty of smiles as stu-dents received their books. Tiwi College and the students would like to thank Books In Homes again for their won-derful generosity.

More Books in Homes

Winning Gold! By Ian Smith On the 7th and 8th of September – thanks to the efforts of Natasha Bennett, the Tiwi Land Council and the TEB – Alex Kantilla and Cecillena Mungatopi were able to represent Tiwi College and our ‘Cluster’ PARCS.

Their results are simply outstanding. Cecillena came home with 3 gold medals for 100m, 200m and high jump with a silver in long jump. Alex came home with two gold medals in the 100m and 200m. For full high-lights see page 16.

News

Tiwi College Newsletter: Term 3, 2013 page 2

Senior School visit Port Melville

By Vanessa Daniels

This term the Senior Young Women went to Port Melville in Garden Point for an excursion. We checked out what jobs they do over there and how the Port will operate. Dean Rioli said anyone over 18 years can sign up to get training for a job out there. For the job you need to go away from home for a few weeks to study. Port Melville will be the docking point for the ships that will be transporting timber and wood chips from the Tiwi plantations. By Natalie Lorenzo

This term the senior students got the opportunity to go to Port Melville. The manager of the place showed us around and we got to explore the place. It was interesting for us because we got to see what they were working on and how they were installing the three pontoons for the ships to stop. After that we got to see two mentors and they spoke to us about the training ship and what you do as part of a Port Melville worker.

By Ian Smith In week 3 of this term the senior boys and girls travelled to Port Melville at the kind invitation from the people of Ezion Holdings, Marine & Civil and Tiwi Marine Services.

The students received on-site induction training and need-ed to wear appropriate uniform and safety gear to visit the construction site that is to be the Port Melville wharf – an integral part of the future of the ‘Tiwi Economy’. Our stu-dents were fascinated and asked many, interesting ques-tions about the site, the export of woodchips, future uses of the wharf and of course jobs.

They were genuinely excited about the training that was on offer and the possible jobs available to them. It is safe to say we could see two of our current Senior School cohort working at Port Melville in 2014… and as the song goes – From Little Things, Big Things Grow…

Tiwi College would like to thank Sean London of Marine & Civil for the invitation to visit the worksite. It’s not often that a business is prepared to tour a group of young people through a site, when it is under construction, let alone take the time to provide a great insight to the possible future for the young Tiwi. The group came back very excited and talkative about this type of work – which wasn’t the case before the visit. See below for student recounts.

Students speak of the Port

Welcome Steve Steve Wilson is our new Senior Boys Teacher. He grew up around Manly, Sydney and is a saltwater man at heart. He has a rich history of working in outback activities and sport – being heavily involved in Strength and Conditioning training for various teams – including American Football (Grid Iron). He has a passion for Health, Well-Being and Physical Educa-tion and has already begun to pass some of this knowledge on to the class.

He has immediately shown himself to be a teacher who is very caring. This was one of the reasons why Steve was se-

lected as a teacher here – as he had just come from working at a Detention Camp in Western Australia.

He has set high standards for the young men and has them working hard. This has been very pleasing to see.

Steve has a rich history and many stories to pass on to his students. They love the fact that he owns a few car yards and the boys are already trying to do some deals!

We welcome Steve to our community and hope his time here is a positive and rewarding one.

Term 2, 2012 News


I loved the Tiwi islands. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been and the Tiwi people are warm and generous and full of fun. I was thrilled to get the chance to visit Tiwi College and see how it is addressing the challenge of providing Indigenous children with a great education without them having to leave their homeland to get it. Under the direction of the Tiwi people and the college board, the staff are pioneering a powerful new model for addressing the specialised needs of remote Indigenous students.

Day visits to nearby Pirlangimpi and Milikapiti schools were also a highlight and so uplifting to be amongst the high spirits of the children. Along with fellow writer-ambassadors Leonie Norrington and John Danalis running workshops with stu-dents from prep to senior years, a fabulous group of supporting teachers, publishers and master chefs this was a really special trip. And you can't go past a swim in a water hole with a rope swing for the perfect end to each day.

Andy Griffiths

Indigenous Literacy Foundation By Bronny Burger

In week 2 Tiwi College welcomed on campus the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and a group of authors from around Australia. During the week students were in-vited to be part of work-shops working with different authors includ-ing Andy Griffiths, John Danalis and Leonie Nor-rington. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation works with schools and communities to ensure that Australia’s Indigenous people are given the same edu-cation, employment and societal opportunities as other citizens. The Foundation works to overcome disadvantage in student literacy skills and resources in communities by providing access to books and literacy resources to over 200 remote Indigenous communities throughout Australia.

Tiwi College was abuzz with story telling and writing throughout the week. Laughter was often heard as stories were ex-changed between stu-dents, teachers and au-thors. In workshops stu-dents were given the chance to participate in their own creation of sto-ries, storyboard writing, and illustrating. Stories were started during the week and even now stu-dents continue to work on stories with the aim of

publishing some Tiwi stories in the future.

Tiwi College would like to thank the Indigenous Literacy Foundation for providing interesting workshops for the students and for their generous donation of books for the classes and library. Thank you to all the authors that donat-ed their time to pass on their enthusiasm and skills in story writing to the students.

I loved the Tiwi Islands!

Thank you Hugo and Carlos By Bronny Burger

Tiwi College would like to say a big thank you to Hugo and Carlos for their untiring contribution to the school over term three. Hugo and Carlos came to Tiwi College from Sydney to volunteer their time and skills at the Hayden Way Farm assisting Jason with the overall run-ning and operations. The Middle School Boys also benefited from Hugo and Carlos who made numerous appearances in the class room to assist with reading and literacy between tackling a number of them on the football field. Thank you Hugo and Carlos for your smiles and energy, we wish both of you all the best for the future.

From the Principal


‘Respect’

Awana,

Another busy term has ended here at ‘Peaceful Picka’.

The term has been one of many opportunities for our students to be involved in rich learning experiences. We have had a boy’s trip to Scotch College, Melbourne; a girl’s trip to Tintern College, Melbourne; participation in the girls Ryco Football Championships; participation in the NT State Athletics Championships; and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation held writing workshops with our students – the list goes on!

A clear message for our students and the Tiwi College community is that Tiwi College now has a well structured curriculum that addresses Literacy, Numeracy, VET programs and provides Stage 1 and Stage 2 for our senior students. Our Tiwi Strength Based Approach is well liked by students. We have had some wonderful results in the areas of art, sport, and we have recently introduced music.

However, a clear difference here at Tiwi College is the number of wonderful opportunities and experiences we offer students to enrich their lives and bring back new stories to family. All that we ask of students is to attend school regularly, respect the school culture and try their best. When these types of opportunities come along – we encourage everyone to have a go and make the most of them because life is full of wonderful surprises.

Recently we had a clear example of this. Alex Kantilla and Cecillena Mungatopi attended the NT State Athletics Carnival. Thanks to these two students being prepared to compete - even though they were very nervous. The people of the Tiwi Islands and Tiwi College can be proud of the fact that we have the State Champion in the u/18 boys 100m and 200m sprint and the u/18 girls 100m, 200m sprints and high jump! This is an unbelievable result considering the size of our school.

But you never know – if you don’t come to school or you don’t have a go!

I hope students and family have a relaxing and safe holiday. We will start term 4 with a bang! The Tiwi Ashes will be held week 1 term 4! Matthew Hayden, Glen McGrath, Mike Kasprowicz, Kurtley Beale and Andrew Symonds will all be at Tiwi College for this great day.

We look forward to picking up all of our students for what promises to be a very exciting term.

Mana

Ian Smith

Term 2, 2012 From the Assistant Principal


As we draw closer to the end of the term, it seemed like we only started school last week. My point being term 3 has been one that has flown by with so much that has happened. This included…

Regular partners from Smith Family, Elissa and Alyson from Darwin Community Arts working with the middle school

and senior girls’ classes.

Barbara and the CSIRO team from Darwin who continued their work with the Senior Young Women, and in addition

Paul Lyons got to do some fun science lessons with the other classes.

Sister Anne delivering her Religious Education Program and Kevin Doolan working with challenged students.

St. Edmunds from Canberra came to visit as part of their work in developing workshops in Indigenous schools in

remote communities. A great effort to the group of students who organised and led the activities and the staff in

coming along to work with the students. It was a great experience for all involved.

Kormilda College visited as part of their Indigenous Program. A highlight was to see the school captain George Kyprios

catch up with old friends, both staff and students as he was once a student here at Tiwi College from 2008-2010.

Alf Harper from CDU who worked with the senior boys in getting their Cert II in Construction.

Jason Ryan - Hayden way Farm, Phil Harmer - Maintenance and the new Senior Boys Teacher Steve Wilson working

with the senior boys on the school based VET Program.

The Academic staff attended PD on English as a Second Language with Margaret James which we all found rewarding

and useful for the classrooms.

Our Middle School Boys camp in week 5 with Scotch College in Melbourne.

Thanks to the Smith Family, our Middle School Girls camp in week 7 with Tintern College in Melbourne.

Joshua McKenzie – Middle School Boys Teacher went to Darwin for a PD on Spectronics which he will introduce

through the use of Ipads into the classroom next term.

Our girls winning the AFLNT Ryco Cup in Darwin which was pretty special as it was the second year in a row. Great

effort by all the girls and their Super Coach Miss Tash and Assistant Dianne (Tictac).

We had two students Alex Kantilla and Cecillena Mungatopi involved in the NT Athletics Championships. Both students

won their age groups respectively being the 100m and 200m Champions and Cecillena won the High Jump for her age

group. Alex was approached by the State Development Officer to attend the National Championships which is to be

held in Townsville later in December, for his blistering pace and time being close to Olympic trial. A great effort for

someone who doesn’t train! Cecillena on the other hand happened to be at the right place at the right time when

someone could not go to the AFL National Titles in Melbourne and she was asked to join the state team. Pleasing

results led to NT winning the Championship and Cecillena has been mentioned to make the National Team. Such a

proud moment for her, her family, and the school.

The Primary School won their kick-ball competition against Milikapiti Primary. Great effort by the students and their

Super Coach Tictac.

In the last week of school the Primary School went to Darwin for their school retreat camp. Thanks to Mrs Steph for

her organisation, and to Ms Rachelle, Ms Joy and Mr Brown for helping to supervise students.

Finally we had five students from the Middle School Classes participating in a video documentary in the last week on

feral cats living on the Tiwi Islands.

On behalf of the school community, I thank the staff for your commitment and patience in your role in trying to guide these students in the right direction. I thank the students for making right choices and decisions in their attendance, work ethics, behavior and attitude and when times were tough, it was good to see that you made an effort to have a go and apologised for your actions if things got out of control. I wish you all a happy holiday and safe travels to and from here whether it is going to the communities, Darwin, interstate or overseas. I look forward to seeing you all next term.

Mana Sila Pati

Primary School


This term in Tiwi College Primary School we have welcomed four new students, bringing our total enrolments up to 15! It is fantastic to have so many students. We have had to rearrange a bit but it has made our classroom more functional.

One of our focuses this term has been questioning. We have looked at asking good questions and actually listening to the answers. Once students have heard the answers they use them to form further questions. We have also looked at poetry over the term and the students have written some really lovely poems.

This term we have also enjoyed having lots of visitors, which has made our topic of questioning easy to practise! My cousin Ella came to help out for a month and then my sister also came for a week. Jenny Reynolds and her sister Karen came to visit us for a week and listened to the students read every day which was lovely. The following week Mr Guy Reynolds, Mr Matthew Hayden and Mr Andrew Symonds came to school to hear the students sing and answer their questions. This was very exciting for the students, although one of them did ask, “so which one of you is famous?” The students have also used questions to develop their writing skills. Every week when they recount the weekend, students need to include; “who, what, when, where, and why” which has developed their writing significantly.

As you are reading this we will be completing our first ever Darwin camp. I am so excited to have the opportunity to take the Primary School students for their first school camp. Truth be told though, I am a little nervous as it is my first school camp too! I look forward to reporting on the camp next term.

Until then, please enjoy these photos.

Steph Mackenzie

Term 2, 2012 Middle School Young Women


Term 3 has gone really fast for Middle School Girls. We have had lots of visitors, workshops and an excursion to Melbourne. It has been great to see students working hard in the classroom, participating in the Growing Young Women’s program and improving on their behaviour. The girls who have attended school and worked hard in class were selected to attend the Melbourne trip with Tintern College. Six students from our class were chosen and they participated in Tintern classes, spent time with their host families, visited the MCG and watched a footy match. Many thanks to Natasha Bennett for her help in organising the trip. It wouldn’t have been possible if not for the generosity of our partner the Smith Family and the tireless efforts of Elissa Shuey. The class have been working on creative writing in Literacy, fractions in Maths and learning about lights in Science. It’s been great to see the girls continually working hard in PE and even having a few games of basketball, soccer and touch footy with the Middle School Boys class. So far the girls have been dominating against the Middle School boys’ class at these sports! Melina Davidson and Gladys Puruntatameri Literacy - Harlema Puruntatameri

This term at school we have been doing spelling tests and creative writing in literacy. Our teacher gave us three boxes; each box had an idea for our story. Box 1 had the Title of our story, box 2 had the object we were to write about and box 3 had an idea about where our story was to take place. The boxes helped us to create our story and gave us ideas. I picked up one paper from each box. The title of my story was The Jungle, the object was a red car and the setting of my story was the Tiwi Islands. So this is my story that I wrote in my literacy book...

In the jungle my red small car got stuck in the hole. I was struggling to get it out then next minute I thought of something. I walked through the jungle and I got a big log and went back to the car to put the log underneath the wheels. I jumped in and started the car. The car moved and finally I headed back to Tiwi islands.

Physical Education - Latina Puruntatameri

On Tuesday and Thursday we have PE with Tash and Tictac. We play basketball, hit the board, knock out and soccer with the Middle School Boys and we have won soccer and basketball against them. After the game we go down to the creek for a swim because we are hot and sweaty. Before we play a game Tash always makes sure we warm up by doing drills, running and stretches. This helps us to be ready for the game and to prevent injuries. We also trained for the RYCO cup in Darwin and the basketball tournament in term 4. The girls won the RYCO cup tournament for the second year in a row. Fingers crossed we make it three years in a row.

Drama - Rebecca Moreen On Wednesday we have had a visitor from Darwin. Her name is Alyson. When she speaks she has a different accent. We have been doing lots of fun activities. We have done a lot of clapping, dancing, acting and singing. At times we got put into groups and practised before we performed in front of the class. We also played games that are fun. We tell Alyson about our culture and where we come from. We tell her of our dreaming and our totem. We talk about our families and sports that we like to play.

Art - Sherayn Puruntatameri

Every week we always go to art class with Mrs Anne, we do lots of painting and we learn about old people and their art work in the olden days. We do tracing of different pictures and self-portraits. Our class has also been working on a Tiwi painting. Maths - Christina Puruntatameri

In maths this term we learnt about fractions, decimals and percentages. We also worked on our maths booklets and played lots of fun team games. We have also been working hard on our timetables and mental maths.

Middle School Young Men


This term the Middle School Young Men have taken learning to a new level. In English they have been studying story writing. Here is an example of one student’s story:

One hot day I was walking along the beach when suddenly a huge crocodile jumped out of the water and grabbed my dog. I saw the big croc just as he grabbed my dog and chucked him into the water. The croc looked at me so I got my spear and speared it in the eyes.

It was doing a death roll with the dog so I went looking in my boat for a cast net. I found one grabbed it and threw it onto the crocodile and the croc was trapped. Then I tied the cast net rope on the boat.

When I went to look for help I saw a police car driving past, but they didn’t see me so I grabbed a big rock and shot the back of the police car. They stopped, put on the sirens, turned around and drove fast towards me. I was scared. They stopped and I told them I caught the crocodile down at the beach. They drove down they asked me for direc-tions to the croc. I told them to follow me then they saw it. The policeman told me to keep back he got his 308 rifle and shot it in the head.

Then he told the community. Everyone was so happy because it was dead. It had been taking all of their dogs.

Then the police gave me five thousand dollars in cash for a reward. I was excited. I went to Darwin and bought a quad bike. Then Leroy was always asking me that if he could go for a ride so I let him ride it. Then the GPT boys told me he crashed on my quad bike. So I drove my Toyota landcruiser to the barge landing. He had broken his right leg. I picked him up and took him to the hospital. Then Emilio called my phone, he was crying for Leroy. I told him he is alright.

That afternoon, on the plane, my new dog was coming. I went up to the airport picked up my dog and took it home. Then early the next morning I went to Smarty’s house to pick up hammer. Then we went to Shark Bay to hunt for pigs. My pit bull dog caught two pigs then we went back to Pirlangimpi. Hammer took one pig and I took the other. Then the next day I picked up Hammer and we went to the shop. We bought cokes and some munchies. Then went turtle hunting we got two turtles and one young dugong.

That night we shared our food with our family around the camp fire. The next day I got up early and sent my kids to Tiwi College for school.

Locky

In Maths the students have been learning about fractions. Students have learnt how to calculate a decimal from a frac-tion and then convert it into a percentage. This term in sport we learnt how to play touch rugby. We were taught by Carlos Blanco a former Spanish rugby inter-national. Carlos also spent time working in our class helping our students. Aussie and I would like to acknowledge his wonderful contribution to our class this term and wish him the best in all his future endeavours.

Next term we are looking forward to learning about food safety and healthy eating. The students will be cooking in the Hayden Way Garden Kitchen as part of this unit. There will also be three opportunities to go on football trips for students who excel in every area of school life. In week 2 students will be going on a trip to Katherine for football.

We hope all our students a wonderful holiday. Remember to stay cool and eat lots of mangoes. Austin and I look for-ward to hearing your stories when you get back to school.

Joshua MacKenzie and Austin Wonaeamirri

Term 2, 2012 Senior Young Women


Year 10 Maths – Daisyria Tipiloura

In maths we have been learning about fractions, rounding numbers, number lines, shapes, measurement, location, and place value. Each day we start off our lesson learning mental maths, problem solving, and speed and accuracy.

Year 11 Maths – Alex Guy

This term we have been working hard in each lesson. We have been working on our NTOEC subject. We have learnt about money, time, calendars and budgeting as well as doing fun algebra. At the beginning of the lesson we practise addition, multiplication, subtraction and division by doing speed and accuracy. We then finish off with a big maths problem. To solve the problem we need to show all our working out.

Year 11 English – Alex Guy

This term we have been working on assignments for NTOEC. We have finished one of the assignments and hope to get the other one finished soon. We have also been working on writing a story about an owl. His name is Bangs. Our class is hoping that one day the book will be published. Each Monday we have twelve spelling words to learn, we also need to learn the definitions. Throughout the week we play spelling games for points on our board. On Friday we have a test on the spelling words, definitions and sentence writing.

Year 10 English - Bobette Minniecon

This term we have been comparing two short stories called Storm at sea and Hail storm. We had to read both stories and compare the similarities and differences in their structure, theme, setting, characters, point of view and descriptive language. At the beginning of English each day we play spelling games to learn our words, definitions and sentence structure and to earn points. Physical Education – Cecillena Mungatopi

This semester we are learning about different types of sports and skills. Our class is working on our Stage 1 PE booklet. We have been learning about cardio-respiratory, endurance, fitness and health. We completed our 20 metre shuttle run test and some of the girls averaged result levels up to 80% which is good for their health. We also completed a written assignment on our beep test.

Work Placement - Bobette Minniecon

This term we started a subject called work placement which is an NTOEC subject. We have learnt about different jobs in the community that we could work at once we finish school. We are also learning about volunteering to help others in the community and getting ready to do our own work experience.

Art – Dellarosa Puruntatameri

In art the class has been doing lino cuttings and printing. We have been keeping a visual diary to draw things while we’re doing nothing at FGH. We can draw anything we see or any lino ideas we get. We drew leaves at the Hayden way Garden. We also drew pineapples, chicken eggs, lattices, and much more. It was great doing art this term.

Drama – Kimberley Cunningham

In class we’ve been doing drama with Alyson. I like doing drama because it is fun and you get to stand up and do your act in front of the class. I remember when I first did drama back at my old school Xavier and I had to stand in front of the class. I felt shy and shame doing it. Now I am used to it and I have more confidence, enough to act in front of the class.

Science – Jessica Bailey

This term we have continued to learn about climate change. We have been finishing our model of the Tiwi Islands so that we can see which parts will go under water in the future because the climate is changing slowly. We have also worked with Vamp TV on a music clip about climate change and we are now waiting for it to be put together so we can see the finished product. Next term we will finally present all our work to other students.

The Senior Young Women have had a very productive term 3 with a focus on producing high quality work in a shorter amount of time. The girls have met this challenge by increasing the amount of homework they do each week and on weekends. As a class we still need to speed up our amount of work to ensure that we meet our requirements for Year 11 and 12 but I have confidence that all of the girls can reach the goal of work and deadlines in the coming term. Well done Senior Young Women for all your hard work. All of you can be very proud of your academic achievements this term. I have a feeling the last term will be the most successful of all!

Bronny Burger and Dianne (Tictac) Moore

Senior Young Men


Unfortunately, our new Senior Boys Teacher, Mr Steve Wilson has been ill for the last two weeks of school. I have had his classes with his Assistant Teacher, Mr Mark Tunmuck-Smith and during that time, the Senior Boys have been working on their literacy and numeracy programs that they have implemented in their class. Being the new guru on the block it has been at times challenging but mostly rewarding as Mr. Steve has continued on the good work that the previous Senior Boys teacher had developed in the past semester. These included:

Developing a new form of fun learning literacy challenge for the Senior Boys, by pushing them to write more and be confident in their oral presentations.

Implementing a Numeracy on-line learning for the Senior Boys to sign up on. Setting up an email account for all of the Senior Boys. Continuation of the in-school VET Program with Jason Ryan – Hayden way Farm; Phil Harmer with Maintenance and

Mr Steve showing off his cooking skills in Hospitality. Establishing a code of conduct / respect amongst the Senior Boys. Taking on extra students (4 Middle School students) to be involved in the VET Program. Continuation with VET-Cert II in Construction with Mr Alf from CDU. Assisting the Senior Boys with coordinating HPE lessons for the Primary School. Challenging the Senior Boys with extra activities in class with ICT. Taking the Senior Boys with their Learners License out for driving practice.

And these are some of the great things that both he and Mr Mark have done with the Senior Boys. There is no doubt he has a lot to bring to the Senior Boys class when he arrives back healthy and ready to rock n roll with the Senior Boys in Term 4.

Mr Sila Pati Assistant Principal

This term we have learnt a lot from our new teach-er Mr Steve. We have also leant a lot from our VET Program with Mr Alf from CDU, and with Jason - Hayden way Farm, Phil - Maintenance and Steve with Hospitality. It has been fun, and we even have an email address. This week we are having Mr Alf again from CDU who is teaching us about getting a White Card for Cert II in Construction course. We hope Mr Steve gets better and we can see him next term when he returns. The Senior Boys

Term three has seen many changes in the garden the great-est change being the weather. We had a few weeks of cool-er mornings and nights which slowed the growth of many of the plants and vegetables. However the last few weeks have seen these temperatures increase slightly which was all the crops needed to increase their yields. The garden has been producing bananas, watermelons, beans, cucumbers, coriander, chilli’s passionfruit, bok choy, choy sum and car-rots. In their VET classes the Senior Boys have been col-lecting chook scraps and delivering boxes of the produce to the family group homes.

We are trying to make a water feature on the southern end of the dam. The Senior Boys have been helping out with this project which includes constructing the form work for the concrete pour, mixing concrete and finishing the section off with rocks for the water to cascade down. We are in the process of looking at solar pumps to circulate the water from the dam down the waterfall.

A big emphasis this term has been providing mulch for the beds and the base of the fruit trees. This is used to decrease the amount of weeds that we have to deal with. Again the Senior Boys lead the charge here; we took the quad bike, lawn sweeper and truck and picked up leaves from the base of the acacia trees. Once we had collected enough we re-turned to put it through the small mulcher we have. The results have been fantastic and we have saved a lot of time on what would have been weeding.

A special thanks to Hugo and Carlos who spent the last 7 weeks helping out around the garden and school. Your efforts were fantastic and greatly appreciated. Let’s hope we see you up here again sometime.

Until next time

Regards Garden Team

Term 2, 2012 Learning outside the classroom


Hayden Way Garden

Art


By Anne McMaster

This term students have continued to create some awe-

some work using painting, drawings and printmaking tech-niques. They have also completed written responses to their art, and other artists’ works.

Middle School Girls created traditional patterns on canvas-

es, and some were taken to Melbourne and presented to

the Tintern School.

ART Is

FUN

- Painting by Ben Ullungura.

- Lino print by Kimberley Cunningham.

- Masks by Middle School Boys

- Painting on canvas by Latina Puruntatamerri.

Next term Tiwi College will hold an art exhibition in

the new library. Work from all students from Second-ary and Primary schools will be on display, and for sale. The senior art students will study how to present their work in an art exhibition, and display the art-work.


Term 2, 2012 Art

- Lino print by Bobette Minniecon

- Painting by Shenia Renwick

- Painting by Christine Puruntatamerri

- Cricket bat designs by Middle School Boys

- Monochromatic portrait painting by Juliette Puruntatamerri.

School Camps

By Juliette Puruntatameri and Deanne Austral

During week 7 of this term Juliette Puruntatameri, Mabel Galarla, Jessie Cunningham, Kathleen Cunningham, Deanne Austral, Shania Renwick and along with their classroom teachers Gladys Puruntatameri and Melina Davidson trav-elled to Melbourne for an exchange with Tintern College.

On Saturday we flew to Darwin and stayed the night and then we flew to Melbourne on Sunday. When we landed we went straight to dinner and met our host families we were staying with for the week. After spending the night with our host families we went to Tintern College on Monday morn-ing.

The College welcomed us with a smoking ceremony with a lady named Aunty Zeta Thomson. Her sister was one of the original members of the Sapphire group. She shared her knowledge and experiences growing up in the Wuradjuri tribe.

Then on Tuesday we went to Collingwood where we partici-pated in a REACH project with other students from Tintern. After the project finished we walked to the MCG for a tour. During the tour we saw the players change rooms, stood on the grounds, visited the member’s only stand and sat in the media room.

Wednesday saw us back in the city visiting the Eureka Tower and watching King Kong. Eureka Tower has 88 levels and you can see the whole Melbourne City. After lunch at South Bank and meeting Mike Malthouse, the coach from the Carl-ton Football team, we headed to the Theatre to watch King Kong. King Kong had lots of dancing, singing and the Gorilla was massive, he looked real.

After a big day in the city we were treated as guests of hon-our at a Rotary dinner where we wore traditional Tiwi skirts and ceremonial head bands. The people there were really nice and gave us presents. The Rotary people donated $5000 to help support our trip to Tintern.

On Friday we participated in a cooking lesson and made muffins. Then we spent the afternoon at the Knox shopping centre with some of our new Tintern friends. We then head-ed back to the College for a BBQ dinner before hopping on the train to the MCG to watch the Hawks Vs Swans. We cheered all night for our favourite teams. It was really cold and we all wore layers of clothes.

The next day we had free time with our host families where they took us to the zoo. We saw lions, giraffes, hyena, goril-las and snakes. After the zoo we spent our last night with our host families before waking up at 4.30am to catch our flight back to Darwin.

Melbourne Tintern Trip


By Hayden Henry-Whiting

In week five this term the Middle School Boys went to Scotch College. We visited Scotch College to see what they do in their school. All the boys went in pairs with some of the Scotch students. In the evenings we were billeted out with families from the school.

On Sunday we went to Melbourne, there were 18 boys and 2 staff. All the boys went on a plane from Darwin to Mel-bourne, but I went to Adelaide first. When we got to Mel-bourne the family picked all the boys up from Scotch Col-lege boarding house.

On Monday we all got dropped off by our billets. All the boys gathered together to meet our year 8 buddies. We had a tour around Scotch College. After the tour all the boys got on a train to the MCG. We had a tour around the MCG, then we went back to the college. When we got back to Scotch College our billets picked us up.

On Tuesday we arrived at Scotch College with our billets. We attended school until lunch. Then we got on a train to the aquarium. All the boys had a tour around the aquarium, looking at sea animals. We also walked to McDonalds to get a feed. We got the train back to Scotch College and our bil-lets picked us up and took us back to their house.

On Wednesday we attended school until lunchtime. Then we got a train to Flinders Street Station. Then we walked to Eureka. We saw all the sights and looked around the city at everything.

On Thursday we watched the Melbourne Demons train at AAMI Park. We had a kick around with them. They gave us their signatures. We got the train back to Kooyong station. We walked up to Scotch College and had a little sports car-nival with Worawa Aboriginal Girl’s College based in Heales-ville, Victoria.

On Friday we attended school all day. In assembly Mr Josh & Austin thanked Scotch college for having Tiwi College at their school. After school we had a footy match against the Scotch - 9B class. Tiwi College won by one point.

On Saturday we all went to the Laser tagging in the city. All the boys were there. We were in there for an hour.

On Sunday we went to the airport in the morning and found Josh on the ground asleep. We got on the same plane and had a good trip back home.

All the boys had a good time in Melbourne.

Melbourne Scotch Camp


Term 2, 2012 School Camps

Growing Young Women’s Program


(cont. from pg 1—below you will find all the highlights from the Athletics Carnival).

Cecillena was entered into 4 events; 100m, 200m, long jump and high jump. After a ‘shy’ start Cecillena performed well in the long jump, listening to some very helpful girls who were competing against her about her run-up and technique. By her 4th jump she had easily secured the silver medal.

The 100m was dominated by Cecillena. After a quick start she held off all competitors with ease, including a very quick and talented athlete who came home strongly. Gold medal for Tiwi! Cecillena had to leave her high jump to win the 100m where the officials held her up for some time. When she returned to the high jump she was initially told it had finished but a kind official let Cecillena have a go at 5cm above the winning height – which she did in one jump! Gold medal for Tiwi.

Her 200m was extraordinary. Cecillena was still walking over to the start when her competitors were getting ready at the blocks. She casually walked over to the start line without any warm-up or preparation and held off all competitors from start to finish. It had to be seen to be believed. Tiwi Magic and word of a Gold Rush on the Tiwi Islands was about!

Alex was entered into the 100m and 200m. Alex dominated the whole race of the 100m – getting off to a quick start – as the Tiwi men are well known for. He then maintained his position and had a strong finish at the end of the race to win easily. He was noticed by an official and his name taken.

His 200m race was even more remarkable. He was to race against his u/18 competitors and the u/20 competitors, some of them resembling athletes

who had been on a long, long weight training program such were their size. Alex got off to a good start and remained level with the ‘frontrunners’ of the race. Upon reaching the straight, he simply accelerated away from all of his opposition to win by 3-4 metres, with still some immediate improvement left in him as he slowed down just before the line. His time was 23.17 seconds – only 1.6 seconds away from a National u/18 place getters’ time for 2012 and 2013! Alex has since been asked to go to Townsville in early

December for the National Championships.

Congratulations must go to these fine young people. We knew how nervous they were about competing, but they did so and dominated, showing the rest of the NT how athletically talented the Tiwi people are. We hope this trip inspires other students to compete and feel the pride of representing their people.

The highlight of the term for the Girls Academy was without doubt, the RYCO Cup – Territory Championships.

As term 3 started, I had the girls in full swing with hard football training sessions to prep ourselves for the Top End tournament. The most impressive turnouts each week from all girls made selection very hard. The final team was selected on determination, skills, and teamwork attitude. On Wednesday 21st Aug we set out by boat to Darwin with the team, and settled into the accommodation at Kormilda College.

Day 1 of competition on Thursday saw Tiwi College dominate the field with an undefeated run through to the finals, with dominating form from Cecillena Mungatopi, Jessie Cunningham and Sherayn Puruntatameri.

Day 2 – Friday, we were due for some tough games against Sanderson and… perseverance and last minute surges from our girls saw Tiwi cross the line in front at the final siren to put us through to the Grand Final against Wugalarr, another so far undefeated team.

Set to be a tough final, the first half was nail biting, with Wugalarr and our girls head to head, Tiwi with just a nose in front at half time. Some strategic field placements moving Alex to the forward line, motivation and belief from all the hard work leading up to this, saw Tiwi College step on the accelerator and dominate the second half in a truly amazing performance, bringing home the RYCO Cup, back to back 2 years in a row undefeated!

We are the Champions!

Natasha Bennett

Tiwi Magic

Term 2, 2012


Sport Highlights

By Natasha Bennett

At the start of the term I was very privileged to be asked by AFL NT to be the assistant coach for the under 18 girl’s state NT Thunder team for the September National Kickstart Championships in Melbourne. After a suc-cessful 2 years coaching my girls, it was amazing to step up on a National level and represent the college, the Islands and the State.

Conditions were pretty tough to adjust to on the first day. Playing in freez-ing temperatures to what we are used to, I had to make sure the girls had the most prepared warm ups ready to take on SA in the first game. With little mercy shown, we blasted an 87 to 1 victory over SA, showing the oth-er states we were here to make our mark.

Second game was also ruthless, dominating Tasmania with a crushing win to place us on top of the ladder after day 1. It wasn’t without a price though. Star player Catlin Armstrong was injured in the first game, placing her out for 2 days.

The next day was to be our hardest match, facing the mighty Victorians on their home turf. Copping some bad luck with some injuries and penalties from the day before, we were down to only 1 sub. Victoria pounced on that opportunity showing amazing talent and strong marks, to keep in front the whole game with a win over our NT side.

As any coach would know, it is not just skill that makes a great player and great team; it is the emotional/mental strength needed from everyone to keep heads high and find a way to rise. Something our girls did to perfection when we played QLD in the second game of the day. A must win game if we were to have a chance at the Grand Final. First half had the girls struggling with injuries from the physical first match against Vic, and trailing by 10 points at half time.

A pivotal shift by coaching staff to move Darrelyn Puruntatameri out of her forward pocket zone into the mid field was the match winner. It drove an unstoppable partnership, with her and Taylor Thorn dominating the run of the ball and stacking in a pile of second half goals to seal a 4 point win.

With our girls battered and bruised, it was time to head down to St Kilda beach for a recovery ice bath session – well, a swim in Melbourne at this time of year is the equivalent of..!

Ready to roll for day 4, our first game of the day was against the physi-cal WA team. NT Thunder proved to be the dominant force, rolling WA by around 50 points, and assuring a Grand Final berth on Friday.

D Day on Friday 13th September. After an intense warm up and drills session, it was back to the rooms for an emotional and motivational speech to the girls, firing them up for what we had all trained hard for, to take out this competition! The start of the game saw our time fire out from the blocks with 2 quick goals, to the crowds cheers. A hard fight by the Victorians though, as we expected, brought the game even again in no time.

Half time had my team down, but we were not about to drop heads. Brilliant and motivational captaincy by Shay, and the ever inspiring words of head coach Andy, fired us up for an inspirational second half of football. When under pressure and injury, pure determination saw a game saving few marks and goals in the dying minutes to claim our National title as the best Indigenous team in Australia!

As well as being proud of my whole team, someone who is truly an inspiration to me and I’m sure many others, is Cecille-na Mungatopi. After claiming state titles in athletics, she received the MVP for the Thunder team and the whole tourna-ment – selected by Xavier Clarke and the panel, as well as making the National Boomerang Squad – the best players of the tournament.

I am honoured and so proud to have amazing talent to work with and I look forward to guiding more potential students to achieve their best and reach their goals!

National Kickstart Championships


AFLNT School of Excellence During Term 3 there were several AFL activi-ties including the Ryco Cup for the girls in Dar-win and the match against Scotch College during the Middle School Boys trip to Melbourne which Tash and Josh will cover in their reports. So

the primary focus this term was developing the fitness and teamwork of the students, however earlier in the term the senior and Middle School Boys competed in Darwin. The Tiwi College Middle School Boys took on Taminmin and Dripstone schools in the Northern States Cup with the win-ning school going to Sydney to represent NT. Our first match was against Taminmin and it was an even contest. Kyle Wilson ran himself to exhaustion and the defensive group fought hard, but two undisciplined acts gave away 50 metre penalties and two goals to the opposition, costing us the victory. The boys were outsized in the second match against Dripstone and although they tried hard they could-n’t match it with their bigger opponents. The Senior Boys then travelled in and combined with Man-ingrida to take on Thunder reserves/St Johns in the Thunder Cup program. Tiwi Bombers captain Tippa helped out, and in the match of the series the Tiwi/Maningrida team went down by just one point with the ball 20 metres out from our goal when the siren blew. Next term there are trips to Katherine and Darwin for the Middle School Boys and both our Seniors and Middle School Boys will take on St Johns. Ian Brown

Term 2, 2012 Family Group Homes


Bula vinaka (Greetings)! With a great sense of gratitude, I once again acknowledge the elders and the people (past and present) of the Tiwi Is-lands. I will continue to pray and seek God’s blessing for the people, the land and all that makes this unique land so beautiful and precious. I also extend my heartfelt gratitude to the principal and all his staff for the many wonderful and supportive interactions with me and my boarding colleagues during the term. We had some tense and trying moments but good sense and wisdom prevailed. Our working relationship has been re-stored and maintained. I must also acknowledge the selfless contributions dis-played by FGH staff by taking up important responsibilities where the needs of Tiwi College came first. A special thank you to Mohuaga and Sheree for sacrificing their time and energy to help in the ordering of FGH supplies this term. I truly admire their spirit of service. Another voluntary service that must be acknowledged was carried out by counseling supervisor Penny Lakey (Mrs). She took special leave from her work as a counselor and came with her husband all the way from Melbourne to volunteer her time to help Tiwi College put together a written wellbe-ing paper that must be relevant to the Tiwi people. Paddy must also be saluted with his personal contributions at the school library and attending to maintenance needs at FGHs. With the endorsement of the Tiwi Education Board, re-search and interviews were carried out at Tiwi College and in the three main island communities. Prominent Tiwi lead-ers, parents, church officials, Tiwi College staff (academic and boarding) and students were interviewed hoping that Penny would fill in the blank page she brought up with her from Melbourne. Being confident that the research was based on the expec-tation and understanding of “wellbeing” by the Tiwi people, Penny finally submitted her findings to the school on August 21st, 2013. They have gone back after their three week stay with us. The wellbeing of our students is in our hands; we have a guideline to steer us forward. A big and well de-served ‘thank you’ goes to Penny and Paddy for their contri-butions. In an attempt to build better relationships with families, I have begun community visits. I was at Milikapiti on Saturday 24/08/13 and Garden Point on 31/08/13. Bathurst will be visited next term. After visiting Milikapiti and Garden Point, I have had the opportunity to meet and share with parents

whose children FGHs have the honor to serve for five days a week every term. My time with them was most rewarding and a good working relationship has been established. I have been truly blessed with this new experience. To all parents and guardians, I wish to thank you all for the honor to be of service to your children this term. The bible says, “Behold, children are a heritage/blessing from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” Thank you for shar-ing your blessing with us. Solomone Radaniva

Family Group Home Co-ordinator’s Report

Family Group Homes


Another exciting and enjoyable term finished here at Family Group Home (FGH) 1! This time, we thought it would be good to hear from others for a change, so following are re-ports from some of the students who live in our house: James Farmer

This term I moved up to FGH 1 from FGH 3 with the rest of the Senior Boys. So far it has been good and I like doing the life skills projects and going for drives with Pisa to practice driving. Alex Kantilla

I like being here in FGH 1, this is my second term here now, but I also miss house 3. Since I have been here I have en-joyed telling stories with Pisa and the boys and having a laugh. I have learnt new gardening and cooking skills and I have enjoyed helping my family group home parents around the house. I also enjoy having my FGH Parents’ two kids at our house, and having fun and playing around with them. Another highlight this term has been doing an exercise pro-gram called Tap Out with Pisa and some of the boys. Steven Puruntatameri

This is my first term at Tiwi College since 2008 and it’s good to be back! I have enjoyed staying in my FGH because we have lots of fun with the boys and the 2 little kids (Talei and Maikeli). I am also enjoying learning more in the life skills projects. We have been cooking dinner for us mob, clean-ing, gardening and driving around with the boys who have their “L’s”. I have had fun playing pool with Pisa and the boys and I am looking forward for next term. Anthony Farmer

I love staying at Family Group Home 1 and I like looking after Maikeli and Talei because they are cute and they are like my own niece and nephew. I love my FGH parents and their kids, they are like family to me now. This term I enjoyed bringing my Tiwi painting from my art class to my FGH and putting it up on the wall to decorate our home. I am the first person to do that! I like watching Meaghan cook and learning how to cook from her. I am looking forward to next term and I would like to work at Tiwi College one day! Meaghan, Pisa, Talei and Maikeli

FGH one



Term 3 started slowly for FGH 3 and it took the boys a while to get back into schooling. An U15’s footy trip to Darwin man-aged to bring back the students that formed the core of FGH 3. These boys having been consistent in attendance and be-haviour also had an opportunity to go down to Melbourne for a visit to Scotch College. As short as the term was, we fo-cused the term on maintaining cleanliness and tidiness of the house and most importantly the rooms during FGH Life skills.

Different room captains were selected every week to see to their respective rooms and the boys got quite excited each morning when Solo came for room inspections. They would follow him around to see his observations. In their enthusi-asm, in trying to get the cleanest room and also vying for the house award at the end of each week. The boys became quite competitive against other rooms to get the prize. Equally important has been their personal hygiene and the stu-dents have picked up personal grooming which has eliminated most common skin ailments.

We have also released a couple senior boys that have moved up to FGH1 and have welcomed two new members from FGH5 who have adapted to our routines and culture of the house. Akanisi and I are proud of the boys attendance and re-spect this term. We have enjoyed their company and having us to be their house parents is a great privilege. We hope the boys have a safe and enjoyable break and we look forward to an exciting end of term together. Mana.

Akanisi Domolala & Isoa Waqairagata

FGH three

Family Group Homes


Life Skills:

This term in life skills we have been doing gardening. We pulled roots out of the ground. We have also been cooking dinner, and the senior girls worked with a lady by the name of Penny. Some of the girls helped each other with cleaning their rooms. Solo gets to choose who has the best kept room each week. We also painted the black gardening tyre painting on our names before making Dunstan put it in the front yard. One day this term Juliette, Nancy, Dellarosa and Shania helped Dunstan with the yard. It was a hot day but they got through the day nice and easy. One day when the senior girls had something else to do, the middle school girls just kept going on with the life skills program. They are the brightest girls, who keep themselves clean and look after their own private property.

By Dellarosa and Juliette

Highlights:

-Kimberley’s highlights are being chosen to go to Alice Springs for the NT Youth Group, watching Pitch Perfect and having a blast with the girls.

-Rosie's favourite moments are watching movies with the FGH4 girls and house parents, and going to the trampoline after school.

-Deanne's favourite moments are training with the Tiwi Col-lege girls, going to Melbourne and listening to music after school.

-Della's best moments at home are when she watched Pitch Perfect with the girls, and when the girls won the Ryco Cup.

-Juliette's favourite moments are when she went to Mel-bourne for the Tintern trip and going to Darwin to compete in the Ryco Cup.

-Kira's best moments are cooking and doing work at school.

By Kimberley Cunningham

From the House Parents:

This term we have had a full house most weeks. One week we had up to 15 girls. It has been great to have regular students each week. We look forwards to seeing the girls again in term 4.

Dunstan & Nadine Maetoloa

FGH four



At the beginning of term three we had 10-11 boys with us. After the trip down to Scotch College in Melbourne we only had 9 boys return, and in week 6 we only had 6 boys. We look forward to more boys returning next term.

The boys have all done well over the term and they had a very exciting time during their Melbourne trip. The house has had its ups and downs, but we have seen a few of our boys be more pos-itive with their attitudes and respect towards us as house par-ents.

This term we have been teaching the boys how to groom them-selves. In their free time the boys continue to love their football, kick ball and hitting the basket ball board. This term we have no-ticed that a few of the boys have grown very tall and in two to three years time they might be joining Family Group Home 1 and

3 as Senior Young Men. On a number of nights this term some of the boys have asked me if I could pray for them which has been a great privilege for me.

We would really like to thank God for the beautiful boys that we have at Family Group Home 5. God bless them during their school holidays. Thank you to all, for your help and support to us over the term.

Tim & Mrs Viola Vea

In term three our house has been full. There are fourteen girls in total. Four of the girls in the house have their L’s licence. They have been going out each Tuesday with Mohu around the block. The girls love listening to music and dancing. Some girls are so obsessed with the song they repeat it over and over again. When the girls dance they look at their reflection on the front door. Each Tuesday and Thursday all the girls in the house have to do life skills for half an hour. Two girls clean in each room, two girls help Sheree cook and the other girls clean the lounge room and do a bit of gardening with Mohu. Monday and Wednesday the girls have footy training. In week 5 six of the girls in our house went to Darwin to play football in the RYCO CUP. The girls have been undefeated all the way and brought home the RYCO CUP two years in a row.

By Vanessa & Alex

FGH five

FGH six

Tiwi College News


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