Principal's Message

Skate Park behaviour and Road Safety

The new Skate Park in Boorowa has been a huge hit with young people in our area and beyond. Each day I walk past on my way home and I am greeted by many Boorowa Central School students enjoying the facility and getting fresh air and exercise as they ride or scooter into and out of the bowl. I often stop, at the request of the students, to watch them execute the new skill they have been practising that afternoon.

Whilst the Skate Park and the actions of the children utilising the facility is not the responsibility of the school, I would like to raise my concerns regarding their behaviour, safety and interactions. It has come to my attention that some of our children when at the Skate Park, are not behaving appropriately. It is also apparent that in their haste to arrive and depart the Skate Park, children are not being safe on our roads and some have had very near misses with vehicles.

As a result of this information the student body has been addressed in assembly and the Primary students have been on a safety walk with Mr Stuart. However, we as the school can only do so much. We need your help for your children.

I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to parents to continually educate your children about road safety and appropriate behaviour in public to ensure we can keep our children happy and safe. Additionally, if you can, pop down to the Skate Park from time to time and share your child's fun.

I am currently liaising with the Hilltops council and the Police Youth Liaison Officer to formulate an intersectoral approach to educating our children and keeping them safe. Watch this space.

​Boorowa Central School Reading Strategy 

Week 4 has been an exciting week at Boorowa Central School with the launch of our Reading Strategy. 

I am currently in the middle of conducting a Situational Analysis of Boorowa Central School. A large part of this is the analysis of our academic data in the areas of Literacy and Numeracy. At close inspection, even though as a school we perform on par or exceed that of statistically similar schools, we have some ground to make up when comparing our results with that of our urban counterparts. Reading is a life skill that is vitally important for all careers and life, after school. Not to mention it is a fundamental skill required to learn when at school. Therefore, we have developed a strategy to focus on the development of reading skills from Kindergarten to Year 12.

In short, we will be utilising our uniqueness as a central school to teach our students reading skills through peer tuition. Each week, secondary students will be taught explicit reading skills that they in turn will teach and reinforce with younger students in small groups. This peer tuition approach has been scientifically proven to lead to an additional 5 months growth every year for all participants involved in peer tutoring - a fantastic outcome. On top of this, peer tutoring can also have a very positive influence on the children's cognitive, emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing.

The younger students are very excited to be working with our secondary students. Naturally, the secondary students are warming to the idea - it's difficult as a teenager to think outside your own immediate needs and wants as we all know. To their credit, however, the majority are approaching the new challenge with responsibility.

We started with pre-reading skills this week and will continue with these all term. For Weeks 4, 5 and 6 the focus is on looking at the following 4 areas to gain information before reading:

• Topic
• Heading
• Pictures
• Layout

Please see the info-graphic below and build these skills into your reading with your children at home. 

Crossing Guard position

As you may have seen advertised on our Facebook page, Boorowa Central School has been successful in gaining a school crossing supervisor position for Pudman Street. If you are interested in this part-time work opportunity please go to jobs.transport.nsw.gov.au to find out more and/or apply.

Mr Graham Jones I Principal

Boorowa Central School