24 May 2010

Cradle to grave education?

| johnboy
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Apparently the youth of Kaleen High and Lake Ginninderra College have had their fates determined.

Andrew Barr has announced that the University of Canberra has bought naming rights to these schools:

From 1 July Kaleen High School and Lake Ginninderra College will be renamed University of Canberra High School, Kaleen and University of Canberra Senior Secondary College, Lake Ginninderra to reflect the close relationship with the University.

All the usual buzz words are being trotted out to justify the new arrangement.

One would have thought it should be possible to have the benefits of university linkages available to all schools in the territory without the need for rebranding?

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i am currently a student at Kaleen High (i am not a junkie, violent or anything like that, i am a normal teen living in kaleen(hehe))and id like to straighten a few things out:
1. Even though our name has officially changed we all still just call it Kaleen High.
2. We do not have a new deputy principal, we have had the same one for a while now.
3. Being part of the UC network does not mean we have to go to LGC or UC we can still chose our own education
4. While some of the people at our school are junkie freaks, the majority are just regular teens living in Kaleen and going to school at kaleen high because the nearest school other than that would probably be either Melba or Canberra; The junkies give the rest of us bad names.

georgesgenitals4:28 pm 02 Jun 10

Canberra public schools – brought to you by Wankaz (TM)

All the money is to employ a new Deputy Principal to ‘manage’ all the glorious unity…

Gungahlin Al1:13 pm 02 Jun 10

Didn’t read carefully enough to realise there was a school renaming as part of the deal. That’s crook.

Gungahlin Al said :

I think this is a good direction, and similar to proposals I’ve been making for some time that the new Gungahlin College should have very close links (even to the curriculum level) with the local unis. It is something I will be pursuing with the new Gungahlin College principal when they are appointed soon.

If our kids move towards college courses that dovetail into courses at ANU and UC, then they are more likely to be able to go to these unis. This means more time for study and less needed for working to pay the rent, as is usually the case when doing uni out of town.

But ALL schools should dovetail, and UC hasn’t announced a large reduction in its international student intake. There should be accepted school standards across the board. It should have nothing to do with naming rights, esp when money is changing hands.

amarooresident3 said :

Bugger. Should have used the preview button.

Minus 26 points for not using said button.

Gungahlin Al10:55 am 25 May 10

I have no idea what happened to the quote there…

amarooresident310:28 am 25 May 10

Bugger. Should have used the preview button.

amarooresident310:27 am 25 May 10

Umm, I would have thought local high schools entering bulding closer links with the local university would be a good thing? And they get $50,000 as well. What’s the downside exactly?

According to the ABC the University is paying $50,000 to stamp its name over the schools.

Come on, you gotta admit the name change is a mouthful of Orwellian proportions. If it’s only an MOU, then why invest such verbal torture for the poor receptionists?

gibbering said :

Ahh, again Johnboy is out rounding up the rabid rabble with his choice emotive words like “bought” that have no basis or relationship to the linked press release. Maybe it was bought, but I see no evidence presented like I would exect from news.

+1

While the name of the school is mentioned, there is nothing to suggest that any money is changing hands, and since the mutual benefits of the partnership are clearly spelled out, I can’t see how JB has come to the inference that anything’s been bought. Even if the privilege has been bought, I can’t see how providing a school with more money can disadvantage their students.

I’m also struggling to find the graveside link; there is not even a mention of post-tertiary education, let alone post-mortem education!

Personally, I think strengthening the links between secondary and tertiary education institutions is of immense value, regardless of what choices a young person makes. Even students who don’t continue on to UC can benefit from a partnership between their school and the university by broader access to university resources and staff.

Ahh, again Johnboy is out rounding up the rabid rabble with his choice emotive words like “bought” that have no basis or relationship to the linked press release. Maybe it was bought, but I see no evidence presented like I would exect from news.

How unsuprising then that all the people put offside by previous schools policies float to the surface.

Get a grip people, there’s an MOU between three educational institutions which involves a name change. Maybe the name change wasn’t warranted, but does it really matter? Sounds like Gungahlin Al’s on the mark that having closer ties and sharing facilities will be more likely to make things better not worse.

It doesn’t lock people in to going to UC or even university at all. Looks like it’s just aiming to make the educational experience better at each of the two insitutions for all students.

Has The RiotACT applied for naming rights to a school? The RiotACT High School, Kambah has a certain ring to it.

Waiting For Godot said :

WTF??? Buying naming rights for schools? Andrew Barr’s really lost it this time. What’s next? McDonalds Melrose High or Playstation Canberra College? I can’t believe this!

I agree a total sell out. So Gungahlin College will be called Marketplace College since it will have two sides that will face Marketplace and the kids will get discounts when spending at the shops. What’s next privatising public schools?

Gungahlin Al, so what about the kids that don’t go to uni, don’t they get to finish their schooling. I have got more than most of my friends who went to uni and wasted another 4 years. With your proposal, since we have super school all primary kids should do high school work to help with the move up. Also preschool kids will do primary and newborns will be put straight into preschool.

This is a joke. Let’s have a simple system k-6 and 7-12 schools, better way to save money instead of a joke of a system we have

merlin bodega9:44 pm 24 May 10

And so cheap! You can buy a naming right for two schools for just $50,000 it seems. Let’s wait and see how long this lasts.

What if you want to go to uni out of town, or study something not offered here.

Waiting For Godot said :

WTF??? Buying naming rights for schools? Andrew Barr’s really lost it this time. What’s next? McDonalds Melrose High or Playstation Canberra College? I can’t believe this!

Nah you’ve got it wrong. It should be more like Vodka Cruiser presents Lake Ginninderra College or even The Centerlink Gold Creek Senior Site.

OR wait for it… The KFC ICU unit.
Level 4 Canberra Hospital
Woden A.C.t

And what would be wrong with the…ANU BARR.

housebound said :

The cynic in me suggests this is the first step towards closing Kaleen High.

It’s more likely to be a step towards UC becoming a vocational education facility like CIT. The higher education reforms will see poorly run Universities like UC lose funding in favour of bigger Universities with strong research capabilities in the next few years. They’ve already started some vocational courses as “degrees” to the UC curriculum, take “planning and construction” as an example. Personally, I’d rather attend a school called Lake Ginninderra College rather than the mouthful of “University of Canberra Senior Secondary College, Lake Ginninderra”.

I don’t know what is worse, being associated with Kaleen High or being associated with UC…

neanderthalsis5:18 pm 24 May 10

One must wonder what planet the bureaucrats/local councillors who dreamt up this little gem live on. As a wise man once said: if you wrap a sh*t bucket in gold leaf, it’s still a sh*t bucket.

Gungahlin Al5:04 pm 24 May 10

I think this is a good direction, and similar to proposals I’ve been making for some time that the new Gungahlin College should have very close links (even to the curriculum level) with the local unis. It is something I will be pursuing with the new Gungahlin College principal when they are appointed soon.

If our kids move towards college courses that dovetail into courses at ANU and UC, then they are more likely to be able to go to these unis. This means more time for study and less needed for working to pay the rent, as is usually the case when doing uni out of town.

Waiting For Godot4:49 pm 24 May 10

WTF??? Buying naming rights for schools? Andrew Barr’s really lost it this time. What’s next? McDonalds Melrose High or Playstation Canberra College? I can’t believe this!

The cynic in me suggests this is the first step towards closing Kaleen High.

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