CWLWA GERALDTON BRANCH Meeting held on 20th February 2016

The Geraldton Branch meton 20th Februaryat the Catholic Centre with fourteenmembers present.

Present: Maria Flavel, Ida Cream, Anne Moffat, Joy Thurkle,Shirley Brown, Wendy Chant, Win Bowman, Pat Miragliotta, Marnie Ryan, Yvonne Krummenacher, Margaret Carruthers, Maureen Barrett, Deearne Gould and Jan Bowen

Apologies: Carol Quill

We welcomed everyone and prayed our CWL Prayer.

1. We discussed our on-going commitment to supporting Language and Literacy programs in our regional and remote schools. We have been doing this by contributing items of stationery such as coloured paper and notebooks, pens, pencils, textas and highlighters. These are presented in a package called “Drawing and Dreaming”.

We ask schools to distribute these packages to children who come from underprivileged backgrounds and are trying hard to attend school and make good choices with their work ethic and behaviour. The children who receive these packages are asked to write stories about themselves, their family or their culture or any other stories they would like to write. We then photocopy, laminate and bind these stories and give them back to the children to encourage them to read and share with their family.

2. Our guest speaker for this meeting was Maureen Barrett, Principal at St John’s Primary School in Rangeway. Maureen gave a very interesting presentation about how children learn to speak, read and write in their early years. She talked about constructive play, early intervention programs, Personalised Learning Plans and “Solution Focused” teaching and learning. Maureen encourages her skilled and collaborative staff to look at what is working successfully already and work out how to build on that. Effective learning then becomes accelerated learning.

Maureen spoke from the heart about some of the challenges faced by vulnerable students who come from low socio-economic and low socio-education backgrounds. Emotional development is important for all children and this can be limited if there are no books or writing materials in the home. Children learn things about their world by speaking and listening, reading and writing.

When asked how the ladies in CWL can help, Maureen suggested a few ways:

  • Pray for these vulnerable children and their families. Every parent has high aspirations and dreams for their child. Sometimes life and its struggles get in the way.
  • Continue to donate the “Dreaming and Drawing” materials. They will be a gift treasured by many of the students.
  • Come to the school as a volunteer and listen to children read. If you have some time and a Working With Children card, there is an opportunity for you to help out in a very real and tangible way.

We thanked Maureen for her wonderful presentation and all felt we had learnt so much about Literacy and how a small contribution can sometimes make a big change in someone’s life.

3. We discussed the “Honour Roll” where long serving members of CWL are being asked to write a few paragraphs about their time and experiences with the organisation. These reflections will be published in a collection that honours the dedicated service given by so many women throughout WA to this organisation. We already have a few contributions and we are busy gathering some more.

4. We read through our State President’s Piece. We discussed our theme for 2016 “Let us be renewed by God’s mercy” and asked whether anyone had an idea for a logo. We also asked our members to think about any other prospective State projects that we could suggest.

5. We reminded members about the “World Day of Prayer” to be celebrated at the Sun City Christian Church on Friday 4th March at 9:30am. We hope that as many members as possible will attend this multi-denominational service.

After we had said our Prayer for Unity, we all enjoyed a Bring and Share afternoon tea.

Jan Bowen – CWL Geraldton