VISE Newsletter - Ngurra Jirrama Foundation

Outback
Volunteer
Chronicle
Volunteers for Isolated Students Education Newsletter Vol 3 April 2014
Mike Stock
Secretariat
ceo@vise.org.au
Colleen Stock
Secretary
secretary@vise.org.au
George Murdoch
Publicity Officer
info@vise.org.au
Supported by :
Baillieu Myer:
Yugilbar Foundation
Tim Fairfax:
The Kerri-Ann Story
VISE has played a major role in my life. Having
gone through 10 years of schooling with Cairns
Distance Ed as well as Home Schooling using the
Victorian materials that many Queensland families
are now using, I had the opportunity to experience the
VISE program first hand.
As a child we kids had many VISE tutors over 15
years. School was tough considering mum had
limited education so I was lucky to be an above average student and easy to
educate. My siblings (Mum tells me) were another story. We always thought it was
pretty cool to be taught by a real teacher and not just MUM.
These volunteers are what kept mum from going insane as we were little terriers at
times. Looking back, these tutors played a major role in my life and helped develop
a big part of the educational knowledge I have today. They have all stayed
wonderful friends and it has been lovely to meet them again after so many years.
When I was 18 years of age Lyn, my mum, had been the coordinator for the
northern area for 8 years and she felt it was time someone else had a go. She felt
she needed to stand back, take a breather and do something for herself. But search
as she did she could not find a coordinator to take over, everyone was too busy.
Tim Fairfax Family
Foundation
I offered to do it. So at age 18 I became north QLD VISE coordinator. It was easy
for me to step into the role as I had seen my mother doing it for so many years. It
also made it a lot easier being a recipient of VISE and understanding the system.
John Calvert-Jones:
So I took to it, developed my own system that worked better than my mother’s and
was easy for myself. At this time I moved away from home to a neighbouring
station with my partner and was helping run a 300 sq km cattle station.
VISE work just fitted in wherever and whenever.
John Calvert-Jones Family
Trust
Aussie Farmers’
Foundation
Northern Territory
Government
Editor:
Kath Breen
CEO Mike Stock & Colleen
wish Kerri-Ann all the best
in the future and know we
have a wonderful friend and
advocate for VISE for many
years to come.
At times you wonder why on earth you put your hand up for a
volunteer job. But then you get a phone call from a family and an
excited mother says that her tutor has just arrived and thank you
from the bottom of my heart as the tutors are wonderful. It’s
times like this that this job is rewarding. You know you have
helped make a difference to a family’s life. Just like many tutors
helped my mother when I was doing school as a child.
I held this position for 8 years doing a wonderful job for a
wonderful organisation, an organisation that I looked upon as my other family. I
hope I have paved the way for other young people to step up and have a go.
I have developed a working system for the administration of VISE that is still being
used today. I retired from Coordinator in August 2013 so I could spend more
time working the station and also developing my Brahman stud called Spinnaker
Brahman’s.
Kerri-Ann French
Our lives are much richer for the experience!
Professor David James
National President VISE
David has had a long academic
career. His initial degrees were
from New Zealand, then he had
five years in USA where he
gained a PhD and worked in
several research laboratories. In
1964 he joined the Chemistry
Department at the University of Queensland where he
remained for 23 years. After a brief stay at Bond
University he was appointed Deputy Vice Chancellor
at Deakin University. In 1994 he became the
Foundation Vice Chancellor at the University of
Ballarat.
which was supported generously by the Gympie
Country Music Muster, over 200 mentors were trained
at the University. They then went to individual stations
and gave training on the use of the internet and also
checked the connectivity to make sure that download
speeds were sufficient.
There was an interesting result of this; at one station
there was no way they could achieve the speeds which
Telstra were required to provide. When the problem
was referred to Telstra in Sydney it was rerouted to the
office in Tasmania where the suggestion was made
that a new line would be installed. When Telstra
discovered that the new line would be over 20
kilometres long they instead gave a satellite connection
to the station. Under the Internet to the Outback
program 1,500 households were enabled to effectively
connect and use the internet.
It was while at Ballarat that David became involved
with VISE in a rather unusual way. Mike Stock was at
dinner in Ballarat and was discussing the difficulties
relating to the use of internet in the bush. John Russel,
who was dining nearby, overheard the conversation
When David retired from the University Mike suggestand suggested contacting David at the university to see
ed that he could take the position of President of
if they could help. Mike, as you know, does not let an
VISE. This was to enable VISE to make use of
opportunity pass and contacted David next day.
David’s experience and his connections with business
They had a meeting shortly after and the program and politicians. David has continued in this position
“Internet to the Outback” was born. In this program, from that time.
VISE Computer Training Trial Melbourne April 12 and 13
We had seventeen keen and
enthusiastic people assembled at
Mooroolbark East P.S. all holding
their warm drink that they had to
gulp down as no hot drinks were
allowed in the Computer Room.
In we traipsed, all eager to once
again become familiar with:
· Naming and formatting our USB sticks
· Using email and Search engines
· Wondering why we thought we knew so
much about MS Word and discovering that it
held many more wonders than we had ever
imagined: even a mooing cow!
· Making a PowerPoint presentation better by
taking a copy of pictures off the net.
· Using MS Excel to calculate our bank
balances.
This took Bernice Charity our wonderful VISE tutor
come Computer Trainer Extraordinaire a full day and
a half. She was so good that all participants came
back on the second day.
Sunday afternoon was taken up with the wonders of
the Queensland C2C Curriculum. We all tried to
come to terms with it and hopefully we are all now a
little more relaxed about attempting to assist kids in
Queensland.
This great session was run by John de Figueiredo and
Judy McIllree and greatly appreciated by all.
A huge round of applause was given by participants
for our leaders at the end of the weekend’s work.
The best response I have had so far was:
“If anyone had asked me prior to this session if I
would gladly spend a weekend sitting in front of a
computer I would have told them they were dreaming.
But I did and I loved it and want to do it again.”
A nice compliment to everyone I think.
George Murdoch
Most of our generation were
HOME SCHOOLED in many ways!
My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB
WELL DONE. "If you're going to kill each other,
do it outside. I just finished cleaning."
My father taught me LOGIC.
" Because I said so, that's why."
My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're
in an accident."
My mother taught me WISDOM.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand.
Colleen Stock
Our lives are much richer for the experience!
A UNIQUE VISE PLACEMENT
My husband, Les, and I have just completed a very unique VISE placement in Strathfield Sydney!
Last year we read a request from Mike Stock regarding
a placement as House Parents for aboriginal girls from
Ti Tree, NT, attending Meriden Anglican School for
girls in Strathfield. We had worked at Ti Tree School
three years ago so thought this a great opportunity to
support some students from Ti Tree at Meriden school.
The program is under the auspices of the Foundation,
“Ngurra Jirrama” (meaning, Two Worlds). This is a
non-profit community organisation governed by a
team of three trustees and board members. There are
documented comprehensive policies and procedures
that we carefully followed.
We volunteered for the first four weeks of this school
year (2014). There were 6 girls – a year 11 student in
her 6th year at Meriden, a year 8 student in her 3 rd year
and four new year seven students.
up communication between themselves and the house
parents. This was an enormous help as we felt we
were part of a team caring for the girls.
I have to admit that at times, we were very tired.
Caring and cooking for six girls (as well as us) is a
pretty big job. There were some homesick tears at first
and a couple of nights involved a phone call home and
a warm Milo. We still had to get up early the next
morning to ensure they got themselves off to school.
We were given a rest on a couple of weekends when
the girls were billeted out with volunteers from the
community.
For the past year the girls have had the same house
parent. This person is no longer there and at this stage
the house parent role is being filled by volunteers. I do
know that the Foundation would love to have other
VISE volunteers as House parents.
If you are interested in volunteering and would like to
know more about it, contact
me
on
my
email
gmayes@bigpond.net.au
Our lives are richer for the
experience.
Gail and Les Mayes
PS From George Murdoch:
Gail,
I liked the story so much that
I am working on changing
the VISE motto to " Our lives
are much richer for the experience". Exactly describes
what we do.
George
Basically our roles were to support these girls as they
negotiated the world of Meriden school and city life.
We also carried out the roles that come with parenting
– shopping, cooking, laundry and TLC. Of course
with six girls, this could be full on at times but on the
other hand it could be a lot of fun! There were
challenges for us as we negotiated our way to Oh that’s good George. Les and I are always giving
thanks to VISE for what it has given us – seven
understand the world these girls knew in Ti Tree.
wonderful placements into worlds we would never
The girls’ first language is Unmudjerra or Wilpiri. have entered otherwise.
Gail
Being English as Second Language students (ESL),
they sometimes found their school work a bit difficult.
Your Responses
Although we weren’t
Congrats on this very enjoyable newsletter, George.
obliged to help them
As I am doing my first placement later this year, I
with their homework,
avidly read all of it, so that I am better prepared.
the “teacher” in us
Ann J Tracey
jumped at the chance
to help them whenever
I was delighted, yet humbled to receive my
requested.
Certificate of Recognition of my contribution to
VISE and those the organisation seeks to serve. The
The girls were very
accompanying letter brought back vivid recollections
well behaved and
of children, parents, journeys and schoolrooms, all
willing to follow the
different, all needing the best I could give of myself.
house routines. It was our role to support them with
Lois Newham
these routines while encouraging independence in
looking after their belongings and personal care. The Brilliant George! I loved reading the stories and can't
school staff is very supportive and very keen to keep wait to head off in July on our next adventure.
Isabel Robertson
Our lives are much richer for the experience!
A Mother’s Story
I am more than happy to tell you of
my first experience with VISE.
Simply life changing amazing.
Due to his own and other family illness, James was
unable to attend school. He was never well enough to
attend full time so missed much of his education. I
had his illnesses and the families to contend with plus
a child who needed support as well.
Then we found VISE.
I found out about VISE one Thursday afternoon and
by Friday afternoon I had so much information and
help I was astounded.
A tutor was found in our home town to help my son
learn to read (at 14 this was a large problem for him).
We then advised VISE that we would be taking him
overseas for a few months as his health improved
when living on the island.
A tutor was arranged to come to the island for 5
weeks. I cannot tell you how amazing and supportive
this was. Gayle was a lifeline and still is, a true friend
has been made.
My son is now 17. He will never be an academic,
however he is working full time and is offered other
jobs due to his work ethic and enjoyment of life. He
has managed to save and will soon purchase his own
car, and plans to build his own cabin on our land.
VISE tutors are simply wonderful. The support and
work the staff do to help the students is beyond belief.
Libby Rawlings
Booking your Placement
An Important Process
Where are our people at the moment?
Circus/Show School 20
Cairns area
16
Longreach area
15
Nthn Territory
15
Charters Towers 1
Reading Tutors
Charleville area
Mt Isa area 1
NSW
9
23
42
These figures are interesting for the Administrative
Committee to look at as well. Our requests are well
down on recent years by ninety requests.
We have ample tutors available so we need to apply our
brains as to what we will do.
Suggestions to info@vise.org.au
Where we have been 1/7/13 to 30/6/14
Queensland
NSW
Nthn Territory
90 placements
25 placements
32 placements
165 students
50 students
38 students
These numbers also support the thesis that the number
of requests is falling. Reasons for this are many fold.

Property sales to large corporations, overseas
buyers and the like.

Managers are able to employ a paid Governess
under their award, I believe.

Coal Seam Gas companies are buying large tracts
of land for exploration and development.
These are my few random thoughts but it would seem to
me that we must support those people that we have
always assisted and that if we have a surfeit of tutors
then maybe we can offer families more assistance than
we currently do.
George Murdoch
Please ensure that all placements are made through your These are simple arrangements that make our simple
Local Area Coordinator. You can find them at: system work without too many complications.
www.vise.org.ovc/keeping in touch
Your cooperation as always will be greatly appreciated
The reason we ask you to do this is because our by LAC’s and especially the CEO who has to sort out
database is regarded as a legal document by our the problems should they arise.
Insurance Company.
Mike Stock CEO
This means should some accident happen, our database
is used to establish where you were. This also means
Editor’s Note:
that if you extend your stay you should also inform your
Once again, thank you all for your stories.
LAC so that she can extend your time on the database.
Keep them coming, especially those of you
We would ask that all placements be done through the who are on placements at the moment.
LAC as a matter of course.
If your story has not yet appeared, don’t worry– we
The LAC should be contacted before any other will endeavour to use them all in the coming months.
arrangements are made. If you are returning to a family
Please send your contributions to:
for a repeat placement remember to get the family to
info@vise.org.au
contact the LAC in the first instance and arrange for
Kath
Breen
your placement.
Our lives are much richer for the experience!