Assistant Principal's Message

You can learn a lot about someone by how they react to difficult situations. Some people put their head down and show steely determination to hang in there and work harder. Others, complain that life is too hard and give up much to easily. Much of Term 1 at Tiwi College has been quite difficult and there have been many things happen that could easily have meant that students might have given up on coming to school or on working hard to learn new things. I am very proud to say that for almost all of our students this has not been the case. Attendance at school this term has been at around 90%. Regardless of interruptions or difficulties most students have kept coming to school and working hard in their classrooms. Nothing makes a teacher more happy than seeing the smiling faces on a Monday morning of students excited to come to school. It has been a difficult term, but many students have made good progress through sticking with it and working hard. The challenge now is to continue into next term with the same sort of attitude. I wish all students and their families a restful holiday and look forward to seeing you all again for Term 2.

Thanks,

James Russell

Paul Lyons-CSIRO: Science Education

On Wednesday 23 March, we had the Northern Territory Manager, Mr. Paul Lyons who is the CSIRO Education Officer visit Tiwi College to run a Science program with the students. This was a joint initiative between CSIRO and the NT Department of Education and Training. It was also a fantastic opportunity for Paul to work with the Primary school and both our Middle School Girls and Senior School Girls. The classes, under the guidance and direction of Paul Lyons, were involved in science experiments which the students found to be both fun and rewarding in their learning experience. We look forward to Paul’s next visit.

Mr Sila Pati
Academic Coordinator

Writing by Senior Young Women

Phyllis and Jack

Phyllis and Jack were sitting by the camp fire. lt was a beautiful day and very cool for a summer's day.

Suddenly they saw a buffalo near the lake. The buffalo was looking for food. They were very quiet because they didn’t want him to chase them. The buffalo looked very mad because he had no food. He went around the camp and Phyllis and Jack called out for help, but no one could hear them.

Finally they grabbed a stick and threw it at the buffalo. He went away. Then Phyllis and Jack sat down quietly to watch the sunset.

By Anna

Cassandra and Luke

One day a girl and a boy lived in the forest. Their names were Cassandra and Luke. Cassandra was a beautiful young woman and Luke was a good fisherman. They loved going for walks in the bush and to collect bush fruit.

One beautiful cool morning Luke got in his canoe because he wanted to collect some fish and crabs for lunch. Cassandra was sitting near the campfire drinking hot coffee. As she sat down, she saw a big rhino ready to go swimming in the creek. Cassandra yelled as loud as she could to Luke. Luke turned around and paddled as fast as he could back to shore.

When he got to shore he ran to their tent and got his gun and loaded it with bullets and shot the rhino. The rhino died. That afternoon, Cassandra cooked the rhino and they had a big feed.

By Alex

Girls’ Fishing Trip

On Thursday the 24th of March the Middle School Young Women and Senior School Young Women went on a fishing trip as a reward for working hard this term. The trip was to a place called Pretty Flower approximately 20 minutes away from Milikapati Community. It was a beautiful sunny day out. We caught approximately 5 different types of fish. Afterwards we all went for a nice cool swim to Taracumbi Waterfalls. We all had fun and enjoyed the trip.

By Stanlisha

Practical Field Work

Adrian (Red) Hendry / Csiro / Tiwi Rangers Visit – Week 8 14/3-16/3

Well where do I start? Another exciting day for the VET Program of Tiwi College as the Senior Boys Conservation Land Management Class were in for an exciting week to have a visit from Adrian (Red) Hendry from Charles Darwin University, CSIRO and the Tiwi Rangers. Over the course of the term withstanding the cyclone and the unfortunate damage to the roads, the Senior Boys have been involved in various types of learning activities in their VET Course-CLM. I was so proud of the boys in their excellent behavior and positive attitude towards the subject and deciding to have a go.

The students were heavily involved in understanding more about their code of conduct which they all agreed upon and was signed by the Principal-Brian Clancy, Adrian (Red) Hendry-Charles Darwin University and themselves. The agreement proved to be the basis for their application to this VET Course. Not only did the students participate in class to work on key concepts and images relating to the VET Course, but were motivated in responding to discussion type activities based on looking after the land on the Tiwi Islands.

We were very fortunate to have the CSIRO along with the Tiwi Rangers take the students out to do fieldwork around Taracumbi Falls and around the back of Pickataramoor. The students were involved in locating sites with a GPS; outlining activities and answering questions by the CSIRO and Tiwi Rangers; collecting data; measuring and calculating the data and labeling sub samples. The CSIRO and the Tiwi Rangers were amazed and impressed by the motivation and enthusiasm shown by the students to lead the group through the sites. Back at school Red had the other group of students participating in identifying the OHS issues on work sites looking at tools and getting the students to actively dig pods on the sites chosen for data to be collected and measured in the near future.

Overall, it was a fantastic opportunity for the students to work with Adrian, CSIRO and the Tiwi Rangers to participate in the fieldwork aspect of the VET Course in Conservation Land Management identifying skills and knowledge that the students will pick up on and lead the team in their next visit to the school.

I would like to personally thank Adrian from CDU (Charles Darwin University), CSIRO and the Tiwi Rangers for coming out to Tiwi College and taking the students out for their practical field work out on the islands. But most importantly, to the students of the college, I was so proud of their positive attitude, motivation, enthusiasm and respect they had to our visitors. The students very much so, enjoyed the experience and look forward to the next visit and are determined to get through more challenges in the practical field work of the CLM VET Course.
Well Done students. Keep up the great work.

Sila Pati
Academic Coordinator/CLM Teacher

Football News

As advertised, the Tiwi Clontarf Academy has had a successful football-filled term. Training sessions, scratch matches and games in Darwin have been some of the highlights with more still to come in the term.

With full junior and senior teams for 2011, the Tiwi Clontarf will be aiming for 10 matches per term for each team. This term is well on track for this.

The junior and senior teams travelled to the mainland for a week of football and entertainment on the 28th of February. Arriving by charter boats and flights the students met in town and went immediately to their respective matches.

Both teams enjoyed many games, a training session with the NTIS and NT Thunder Coaches, BBQs at Mindil Beach and the Nightcliff Foreshore and a meal at the Wharf.

The Junior team enjoyed games against Roseberry, Sanderson, Dripstone, Katherine and St Johns. They were hard fought games and the team came away with 3 wins and 2 losses. Other trip highlights included a trip to Litchfield National Park and training with the Sanderson Academy.

The Senior team played St Johns, Casurina, Jabiru/Gunbalanya, and Kormilda College. The senior team only came away with one win but some quality opposition showed exactly the type of work and effort that is required to play football at a consistently high level.

First term is nearly finished but there is still plenty of football on the Agenda. The junior team will host 5 visiting Academies for the Tiwi Shield. The tournament will include Jabiru/Gunbalanya, Yirikala, Roseberry/Palmerston, Katherine and Kunnunara. Approximately 125 people will be staying at the College for the event which promises to be spectacular.

Tiwi Girls back in action!

During week 6 the Tiwi College girls went on a trip to Darwin and got back into playing some footy. They felt very proud and excited to get back into action on the footy field. The girls played four games, two against St Johns and two against Roseberry High. They smashed all of their opposition and had a lot of fun doing it.

This is the first time the Tiwi College girls had played in Darwin and the first game of footy they had played since August 2010. After such a long break, the girls were fired up and ready to go. They showed great skills and that AFL footy is truly in their blood.

The girls have got much more footy to look forward to during 2011. There are plans to play in a festival on the mainland and some girls have already been selected to try out for the Northern Territory Under 16 Team. During 2011 the Tiwi College girls are pumped up and back in action and you could not wipe the smiles off their faces. GO TIWI COLLEGE GIRLS!!

Senior girls and Mr. James

Middle School Young Men

The middle school young men really enjoy their football. They love training and playing matches. On the 28th February we left our communities and headed for Darwin on a week long footy trip. We played games against Rosebury, St John’s, Sanderson, Dripstone and Katherine. Out of the five games we played we won three and lost two. The two games we lost were against teams with older players.

Our trip wasn’t just about football it included a meal at Mcdonalds, a trip to Katherine, shopping at Casurina, swimming at bully rock holes and staying at the backpackers lodge. Our favorite part other than football was swimming at the rock holes

Friday Sport

Well, we normally have our sport clash with the staff and students split into their 6 color houses every Friday. Unfortunately, due to the disruption from the cyclone with the damage and the closure of the roads, we weren’t able to get our Bathurst students to school. As safety was the most important option to take, staff could not pick them up from Paru / Nguiu.

Anyway, our regular Sport day was not to be wrecked, so we did something different by having a tug of war amongst the staff and students who were at school. The teams were divided into the Senior School Young Men, Middle School Young Men, a combined team of the Senior School and Middle School Young Women, some of the junior School class, the Teachers and the Teacher Aides.

The Senior School Young Men seemed to dominate the tug of war competition by demolishing the Middle School Young Men. The combined team of the Senior School and Middle School Young Women were outgunned and over powered by the strength and mighty force of the Teacher Aides led by Powerhouse Gawain Tipiloura and the all conquering brute force of the Big Show Den Den. The next group in line to take on this menacing power force was the teachers. As all looked good to go with the crowd standing by in awe of the excitement to see a great matchup, it was pretty much the teacher aides who conquered the tug of war match by defeating the teachers and taking victory honors again. It was left to the Junior School students to take it upon themselves to have a shot at the teacher aides and spoil their fun, and in doing so, defeated the teacher aides and stole the show by not giving up and working together as a team to outmuscle the brute force of the Big Show Den Den and his partner the Powerhouse Gawain Tipiloura and their crew the Teacher Aides.

From that point, the staff and students were divided into two teams to play AFL which was played in stormy, windy, wet conditions, but did not sway both teams to stop and run under cover. Everyone continued to play the game - which is seen as the best game in this part of the country. I beg to differ, however, I was not going to argue with the staff and students who were just fantastic and brilliant in their sporting ability.

I was just amazed at the talent identified in the staff and students of Tiwi College. Some of the standouts of the day were just awesome and showed us some of their skills and tricks of the game. We had the speed and agility of Teacher Aide Patrick Keenan who is also a member of the Tiwi Bombers team; our Red Dust Sports Coordinator Jason Ryan who is a former Australian Representative in Rugby Union and also showed some of his AFL skills in both defence and attack; the tenacity of Steven Stassi; the never give up attitude of Anthony Farmer; the forever skill full AJ; the talented Kevin Portaminni; the ferocious Captain Gabriel on the day who would never lay down and fought to the end of the game; others included James Farmer who amazes me at times with the sheer strength and speed he has to out play certain players; and last but not least one of the Middle School Young Women who is also a powerhouse that runs hard, tackles hard and is seen by others to be an all rounder in basketball, soccer, volleyball and in addition that she is seen to be a great sports person both on and off the field.

There were so many of the students who played well and it will be great when we get all our students back from Bathurst to join us. I would like to thank all staff and students for their participation in the Friday Sports Games. It’s great to see everyone working together as part of a team to achieve goals, whether they win or lose, the main thing is that both staff and students got to have fun, shake hands and wait for next week where it all starts again.

Cheers,

Mr Sila Pati

Academic Coordinator

Girls' Trip to Darwin

Last week, Monday 28 of February, the entire group of Tiwi College students went to Darwin for a school camp. School had been cancelled for the week because the cyclone had made the roads unsafe and we could not travel.

The Milikapiti and Garden Point students jumped on the plane at Mili Air Port. It was a 20 minute flight. When we got to Darwin, we jumped on the bus and went straight to the Wave Pool. After that, we went to Kormilda College where we were staying. That night the girls went to Malak for dinner.

We spent the week doing lots of activities. We played football against other schools. The Tiwi girls were undefeated in all footy games. We had our nails done. We had massages and Tash gave us facials. We also did dancing and lots of talking to local kids.

On Wednesday we also went to Palmerston to watch Big Momma 3. It was really funny. Our favourite part in the film was when the lady and the boy were singing.

Overall, the camp was great and we had a good time. We hope there are other camps this year.

By Laura, Alex, Vanessa and Cassie

Literature Week

During the Cyclone week the only class still at school was the Junior class. The students had fun with a Literature Unit using the classic children’s story book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The Unit is based on Bloom’s Taxonomy and developing Critical Thinking Skills. We covered Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

We worked in groups to identify story elements like beginning, middle and end. Students recalled details through drawing pictures and we predicted and summarized using vocabulary like First, Then, Next and Finally. We also participated in a Choral reading activity. Our spelling focus was the days of the week and the older students helped the younger ones. We will also be working on our comprehension skills.

On the last day, in celebration of our Literature study, students brought a favourite book to school for Show & Tell. We talked about our book and then Ms. Georgie read all the books to the class.

Before we went home we were presented with Literature Awards. It was fun!

The Junior Class

Senior Boys Footy Trip

By Stephen, Gabriel, Curtis, Kevin & Jason

Last week the senior boys from Tiwi College went into Darwin for a 5 day Clontarf football camp. Our first game was against St John’s and it was not good as we lost by about 8 goals. We then went to Mindel beach for a BBQ dinner. We stayed at Casuarina Secondary College that night. The next day we had a session at the NTIS with the NT Thunder coaches. After training we played against the CSC and it was a good game between us and the CSC which ended in a draw.

The next day we drove down to Jabiru and we stayed there for a night.  It was a long drive and took us over 4 hours to get there. We played against Jabiru and beat them easily. That night we had a BBQ and Jason & Stephen cooked the food for all the boys. Mr Gawain was making us laugh! The next day we got up early and drove back to Darwin.

Back in Darwin we played Kormilda and it was a really good game. Unfortunately we lost by 3 goals in the end. That night we went to the Wharf for tea and had fish and chips. On Friday we went shopping at Casuarina and then came home to the Tiwi Islands. 

We would like to thank the Clontarf and Tiwi College staff for taking us on the camp!