Congratulations to all Awardees from the 28 schools that participated in this year’s Primary Schools Citizenship awards. This year the PRISCA presentation night was the biggest we have held since Rotaract began organising the event, with over 400 people present to congratulate the many very deserving and promising young people who received awards on the night.

Each child received their award from the Mayor of Burwood Leslie Ferneaux-Cook and Steve Cookson, president of the Burwood Rotary club. As they took to the stage, the emcees of the night read out the child’s citation, giving the audience a glimpse of the activities and character of the children who earned these awards. They and their schools should be proud of themselves-- their activities and achievements are certainly great indeed! To paraphrase Principle Gail Charlier from Drummoyne Public School, in her response on behalf of the participating schools, what these young people have achieved at such a young age is amazing, and certainly paints a bright picture for their future.

We are very grateful to Olympic Bonze Medallist Taniele Gofers, a member of Australia’s Women’s waterpolo Team, for her wonderful speech, and for her message that you must ‘do what you love, not just what you’re good at.’ Her speech was very well received, and was only matched by the enthusiasm to see her and her Bronze medal.

To see some photos from the night, see our gallery. Click here for a copy of the program

Sponsors of the Awards night:

We would like to acknowledge the sponsors of the 16th Annual Primary Schools Citizenship Awards: Burwood Council, Rhodes Shopping Centre, the Australian Catholic University, and Braithwaite Speech and Learning Clinic.  Their generous donations greatly contributed towards the success of the Awards evening, where 53 primary school students in our local community were recognised for their exceptional qualities of leadership, reliability, trust and special concern for others.  This year’s Awards recognised the achievements of the largest number of students ever nominated by schools in our local community, with our sponsors kind donations greatly assisting the Rotaract Club of Burwood, in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Burwood, being able to undertake a successful evening.

The Awards night Raffle

Thanks to all who attended for supporting the awards night raffle - we managed to raise just over $2000 which will go to UNICEF’s School-in-a-box program - this will allow us to purchase 7 school-in-a-box kits to be sent to countries which desperately need them. We would especially like to acknowledge the donors to our Awards Night raffle also - without their help this would not have been possible.

A bit about School-in-a-box

School-in-a-Box has been used by UNICEF since the mid-1990s. It was originally developed as a pre-packed kit by education experts from UNICEF and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to provide basic education to hundreds of thousands of children who had been displaced by the events in Rwanda in 1994 and were living in refugee camps. Today, it is also used in back-to-school operations around the world.  The School-in-a-Box contains supplies and materials for a teacher and up to 80 students and is culturally neutral. In addition to the basic school supplies, such as exercise books, pencils, erasers and scissors, the kit also includes a wooden teaching clock, plastic cubes for counting and a set of three laminated posters (alphabet, multiplication and number tables). The kit is supplied in a locked aluminium box, the lid of which can double as a blackboard when coated with the chalkboard paint included in the kit.  Each box costs $280.
 

10 all purpose scissors
Duster/wiper
4 chalkboard teaching tools
8 flip chart markers

2 Register book
2 Exercise books
6 Felt-tip pens
72 Pens
600 chalk sticks
20 rolls of adhesive tape
 



48 Wax crayons
144 Pencils
100 Pencil sharpeners
144 Pencils for slate
120 Erasers

	Non-consumables	Consumables
Teacher	1 Lockable storage box 1 Nylon bag Set of 3 posters Set of 100 colored square cubes 1 Wooden teaching clock Paint brush Measuring tape Ruler 30-60-90 degrees triangle 45-90 degrees triangle Compass	2 chalkboard paint
Student	80 Carrier bags 40 student slates 100 Rulers 40 Safety scissors	200 exercise books, lined and squared

Donors to the Raffle:

Taniele Gofers,
Gavin Douglas,
Hair Inspirations, Major’s Bay Road, Concord,
Colours of Concord, Major’s Bay Road