Deputy Principal’s Message

If you were to ask my wife, Miss Renee, about me she would tell you that I spend way too much money on Magazines. I love to buy magazines about surfing, fishing, football, motorbikes, photography.....almost anything. When I stop and think about why I have this obsession with magazines I have to admit it is not to read the stories - even though I usually do! The real reason, is that I really like to look at photos.

To me photos are amazing things because they can capture a moment and tell the story of what happened at a time and place for many years to come. A good example of this is the Museum at Wurrumiyanga which shows many important moments from Tiwi History in beautiful old photographs. Recently at Tiwi College we captured a historic moment in some photos.

On Wednesday the 27th of April Tiwi College announced its very first group of school captains. This special occasion was attended by Tiwi Education Board Members and celebrated by all staff and students. Our school captains will be kept very busy representing the school at special events, working together on the Student Council and being excellent leaders and role models to their fellow students.

Congratulations to you all on being selected and remember that being a leader can be hard work and very challenging, but it is a fantastic opportunity not to be taken for granted. When I look at our 2011 School Captains’ photo I see proud, strong young people who are the future leaders of the Tiwi.

Mr James Russell

Front row, left to right - Maralampuwi Maralampuwi (TEB), Marie -Junior School Girls’ Capt, Stanlisha – Girls’ School Capt, Jason – Boys’ School Capt, Jonas - Junior School Boys’ Capt, Kim - Middle School Boys’ Capt, Pedro Wonnaeamirri (TEB).

Second row, left to right - Leslie Tungutalum (TEB), Cassie - Senior Girls’ Capt, Evita - FGH 4 Capt, Laura - FGH 6 Capt, Marius Puruntatameri (TEB Chairman), Richard - Middle School Boys’ Capt, Freddy - FGH 5 Capt, Harley - FGH 2 Capt, Stephen - FGH 3 Capt, Gawain Tipiloura (TEB).

Absent: Gabriel -Senior Boys’ Capt and FGH 1 Capt

Senior/Middle School Young Women

This term in Middle School and Senior School we participated in English and Math classes and had fun learning with friends.

In class everyone is working hard. We learnt about letters and sounds and how to write good sentences and paragraphs. We have worked on our reading comprehension and filled out forms using information about ourselves. We set goals for term 2 to help us focus and improve our Language and Math skills. Math has been a busy time too. We are working on graphing and also learning how to collect data.

School is important to everyone in our class because we all want to learn. We work hard and we want to get good jobs to help family and the Tiwi People.

By Laura, Alex, Cassie, Anna and Darrelyn

Senior Young Men Report

It has been great to see the Senior Young Men back at Tiwi College for the start of term 2. With all the disruptions last term, it has been great to have them all back at school and keen to learn. A number of our boys have been elected as student leaders but we’d particularly like to mention and congratulate Jason Minnicon, who has been elected the male School Captain of Tiwi College. Jason went to Melbourne this week to represent the college at a meeting.

It has been great to see a new face in the class in Wally Brooks, as well as a number of boys who have returned to Tiwi College after a bit of a break. The Senior Young Men’s class as a whole has shown great leadership and maturity so far this term. They have applied themselves very well to their school work and are setting a good example to the younger students around the school and at footy training. All the boys are showing a high level of improvement in their spelling and numeracy which is great to see.

The Tiwi College Clontarf Football Academy has continued this term. There are a number of games and trips for the Senior Boys coming up this term which they have begun training for. It is really important that the boys get to each and every training to improve their skills and fitness and to ensure that they are able to take part in the games and trips on offer.

Patty and myself would like to congratulate the boys on a great start to term 2 and encourage to keep coming to school with a positive attitude and enthusiasm for their learning.

Mr. Troy Cunningham
Senior Young Men Teacher

Middle School Young Men

After an inconsistent last term we are very pleased to announce that the majority of Middle School Young Men returned. We also have two new faces Trav and Chaz. Our class would like to make a special welcome these young men, and we hope that Tiwi College will be a very special place for them.

This term we will be focusing on story writing and historical fiction. The students will be writing fictional stories using real life facts as motivation. Already this term we have seen some great writing and we look forward to seeing much more.

The highlight of our term will be our trip to QLD where the boys with the help of a few seniors are playing a curtain raiser to a Brisbane Lions game at the GABBA. They are also looking forward to hosting Casurina and Sanderson in the weeks leading up to their trip.

All in all we anticipate the Middle School Young Men to have a great term of fun and learning. If the first eight days are anything to go by we are in for a very special term.

Tiwi Clontarf Academy Term 2

The Tiwi Clontarf Academy is looking forward to a very busy Term 2. The first term was a success with three trips to the mainland and 15 games of football played. The Highlights for Term 2 are set to be...

Week 4: Visit from Casurina Clontarf
Casurina Clontarf will be travelling to Tiwi College from Wednesday to Friday in Week 4. They will bring their Senior Group to the Islands which beat our Senior side by 2 goals last time they played.

Week 5: Visit from Sanderson
A side that defeated our Junior team in Darwin on our first trip to the mainland in Term 1. The Sanderson Clontarf regularly allows Tiwi College to stay at their facility and we look forward to extending them our hospitality Wednesday to Friday in Week 5.

Week 6: Brisbane Trip
The Narangba Valley Vipers have developed a close link with Tiwi College as they travelled to Tiwi College last year and had a great time with our students. Both Tiwi College and Narangba Valley Secondary College have worked hard to strengthen this opportunity by taking our Middle School students to Queensland in a Cultural Exchange. The trip will include Surfing Lessons, Community Camp and an AFL game.

Week 7: Barunga Festival
The Senior Students will travel to the famous Barunga Festival and enter their side in the Open competition which attracts Community teams from all over the Territory. Staff will be encouraged to join in this team and come for the experience.

Week 9: Territory Cup
The final week of term will see the Senior boys take on all the talent in the Territory’s Clontarf Academies. After a big term of training and matches the Baby Bombers will hopefully be in fine form for the Tournament.

Event Dates

4th May: Tiwi College has so much happening this term with all things sailing starting with visits by CSIRO, Mission Australia and Blue Earth / Fusion. Students were involved in educational activities set up by the visitors who were so keen to get our kids engaged in fun-learning activities. The CSIRO took our Senior Boys out to identify plants and trees on the Tiwi Island and also notified TIWI names.

10th-12th May: Adrian “RED” Hendry coming in to work with our Conservation Land Management Class in the Senior School Vet Subject.

10th – 12th May: NAPLAN Test is on for our year 3,5,7 and 9 cohort of Tiwi College.

18th-19th May: CSIRO visit again for the Conservation Land Management Class.

24th May: Essendon Football Club visiting Tiwi College. They will be promoting the Long Walk - ( Michael Long ) As part of the program they are offering free of charge – travel into Darwin Friday 27th – watch a AFL footy match which is occurring, being involved in the Long Walk promotion – then fly them back perhaps Sunday evening / Monday morning. (1 staff member and 6 students). The big picture is that this will become a trip to Melbourne to participate in the Long Walk prior to the DreamTime game at the MCG (2012 onwards).

26th- 27th May: Try a Trade. A World Skills Australia initiative aimed at encouraging Year 9 students who are considering taking the vocation option whilst still at school. This event will showcase, and provide students an opportunity to explore the Trades “hands on”, with so many of these trades listed as skill shortage areas. This experience will provide students a better foundation, for making decisions regarding vocational education and training in Schools and/or a school based new apprenticeship.

28th May: Essendon Indigenous Communities Program – 6 students displaying best attendance and best behaviour will be flown in to Darwin as part of the Michael Long “Long Walk” before the Richmond vs Port Power match.

7th-9th June: Adrian RED Hendry from Charles Darwin University to visit our school for Conservation Land Management class with the Senior Boys. Along with the Tiwi Rangers to go out and participate in field work excursions.

Principal's Message



Mr Ian Smith

 Awuna,

My name is Ian Smith and I have come back to the Tiwi Islands, after teaching at Wurrumiyanga in 2001 & 2002. I have comeback for ceremony and visits since then and have loved seeing former students growing up, having families and taking on different roles in the community.

I loved our first Tiwi College assembly today, to see an ocean of blue shirts! It was great to have members of the Tiwi Education Board there to speak to the students about setting goals for the future, aiming high and respecting one another – as is the Tiwi Way.

Maralampuwuyi and Leslie then presented our college leaders with their badges as Deputy Principal James Russell spoke of the need to wear them with pride and show responsibility.

It is my hope and I’m sure the dream of many Tiwi that these leaders are the young people who will grow up to be the members of Tiwi Boards and Land Councils in the years to come, to shape a Tiwi future that will embrace the Western World but keep the Tiwi identity and culture.

In the meantime, the great staff here at Tiwi College will work hard to ensure that the students will gain the knowledge necessary to gain employment in Tiwi industries and make smart choices for themselves and others into the future.

Mana.

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