St Ives North Public School was recognised by the NSW Government for their outstanding efforts in disaster resilience at a special awards ceremony at Parliament House today.
The 2017 NSW Get Ready Community Award and the Resilient Australia Awards showcase important disaster preparedness initiatives that often go unseen. The awards aim to inspire communities to strengthen their capabilities to withstand and recover from natural disasters.
Minister for Emergency Services Troy Grant and local MP Jonathan O’Dea congratulated the winners for their extraordinary efforts.
“St Ives North Public School won the Schools category for their development of Project Firestorm, a study program for year 5-6 students to deeply engage with and investigate issues around bush fires. The project was supported by the NSW Rural Fire Service and the NSW Department of Education and has become a model for other schools to include in their curriculums.” Mr Grant said.
Member for Davidson Jonathan O’Dea highlighted the important role that schools can play in the development of disaster resilient communities.
“At St Ives North Public the teachers and students took it upon themselves to investigate bushfires, working on student-led learning strategies,” Mr O’Dea said.
“Students learnt about bushfire readiness and about fire danger through a partnership with the NSW RFS which provided expert advice. Excitingly the Department of Education is now actively promoting this program to other schools.”
The Resilient Australia and Get Ready Award winners are clear examples of local communities joining forces to proactively build and strengthen resilience in the event of natural disasters.
"While our emergency service agencies do fantastic work protecting and supporting communities in times of need, we all have a responsibility to think ahead and prepare for natural disasters," Mr O’Dea concluded.
