Education Week saw students, parents and teachers across the Tweed coming together to celebrate public education in NSW.
While a lot of schools had their own celebrations and open days, this year the Aurora Learning Group, made up of Banora Point High School and Centaur and Terranora Public Schools, were chosen to host the annual Regional Director’s Awards, with the event being held in the Banora High hall.
The awards recognise the contributions of students, teachers, office staff and members of the community in the area from Alstonville and Ballina to the Queensland border. They also gave the Aurora students a chance to show off their skills in dance, music, art and drama along the way.
This year’s winners included a large number of Tweed recipients, including Centaur Public’s Melanie Renshaw, Fingal’s Megan Baker and Bronwyn Frankham from Kingscliff High School, who all received excellence in teaching awards, while Jenny Clancy from Banora Point High School and Kiernan Houlahan from Kingscliff Primary received awards for Outstanding School Leadership and Craig Blackburn of Pottsville Beach Public School received an award for “Outstanding contribution to Public Education by a community member”. The awards for Outstanding School Administration and Support went to Luisa Mustard of Banora Point Public School and Carol Ball of Tweed Heads Public. Banora Point public school principal Dean Files received an “Excellence in Educational Support by Regional Staff” for his stint at the leadership centre as did Leanne McLachlan of the Murwillumbah office.
And of course the students were also in the awards, with Bethany Clark of Banora Point, Jemma Gabriel of Condong and Liam Sproule of Pottsville Beach all receiving awards for Excellence in Student Achievement at a Primary School level, while outstanding student James McCann of Banora Point and amazingly talent creative arts students, Murwillumbah duo Jade Liddell and Kalyani Ellis received awards for Excellence in High School.
The last awards of the night went to Banora Point High and Centaur Public for school achievement.
