Garry O’Brien at work on site at the Reedy Swamp with the Notre Dame students. Photo supplied by Julie Hodgkins

The 2008 Global Best Awards are part of the 9th International Education Business Partnership Conference organized by the International Partnership Network in collaboration with the Conference Board of Canada.

We are very pleased to announce that Notre Dame College together with our community partners have received a Global Best Award Honourable Mention in the category of “Building Learning Communities” and that Gary O’Brien and Julie Hodgkins are currently in Finland attending the conference and to accept the Award in September. Also, Gary and Julie have been invited to conduct a workshop at the conference on the RiverConnect/VCAL project.

The Global Best Awards celebrate outstanding and effective business, education and community organisation partnerships that have a significant impact on the communities in which they operate. The invitation to present means that our project has been recognised as a highly regarded model at a global level. It is expected that there will be 500 international participants at the conference and the main themes of the conference are:

• Building Learning Communities
• Developing skills for the future workforce
• Enabling economic development through enterprise and livelihoods
• Promoting health and well-being in children in education.
• Visits to schools/business partnership projects in Finland.

The Notre Dame VCAL students have been involved in the RiverConnect project in 2007 and 2008 as part of their Religious Education (Community Awareness/VCAL Personal Development Skills Units).

The students and teaching staff have worked closely with the following government/ community agencies – our community partners:

• Department of Primary Industries
• Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority
• Goulburn Murray Landcare Network
• Goulburn Valley Water
• Parks Victoria
• The Greater Shepparton City Council

Notre Dame College VCAL students were allocated the area known as Reedy Swamp - a significant wetland which provides a habitat for a large number of birds and other wildlife - and is managed by Parks Victoria. Using GPS technology, the students have carried out audits and surveys to assess the level of noxious weeds and the amount of re-growth of native tress and grasses in the area. The students have also been involved in planting trees, poisoning willows and rubbish clean ups in the Reedy Swamp area. The VCAL students have built nesting boxes for the squirrel glider and are currently building picnic tables to be installed at Reedy Swamp at the end
of 2008.

Notre Dame College has established important partnerships and effective working relationships with all the community groups involved in the RiverConnect project which has now been recognised internationally. All parties involved have given outstanding support to our students and teaching staff in relation to environmental issues and habitat enhancement of the Reedy Swamp area. The project has included the involvement of our local indigenous community in relation to culturally sensitive areas in Reedy Swamp and also lessons conducted by two of Parks Victoria Rangers (Greta Morgan and Hilda Stewart) on the topic of “bush tucker”. 

Special thanks to Dianne Hanna (RiverConnect), Bruce Wehner (Parks Victoria) and Danielle Beischer (Landcare Network) for their untiring efforts over the last two years with our VCAL students.

The project has enabled the objectives of the RiverConnect program and the outcomes for our VCAL students to be simultaneously met. It has also enabled our students to take ownership of part of their living environment and to be motivated to continue to protect it for future generations. 

Julie Hodgkins 
Student Pathways Co-ordinator , Notre Dame Secondary College