Page 26 - Tropic Magazine Issue 26

TROPIC • EDUCATION

Holistic learning

STEINER SCHOOL
Tropical North Steiner School
will provide a new primary
education offering to the
Douglas Shire.
Words: Annabel Bowles
2021 will mark the opening of a
new independent primary school in the importance of early childhood
Mossman. Tropical North Steiner School education and its ability to foster a
is set to welcome just 25 students across lifelong love of learning.
Prep to Class 3 in its opening year, before “More and more families are seeking
eventually growing to include Class 6. a well-rounded education that will
Steiner education, also known as Waldorf produce capable healthy and happy International hub
education, follows an internationally- human beings,” she said. “They want an
recognised curriculum focusing on the education that will invite their children International students could
balance of academic, creative, social and to be more in touch with nature and help flatten the curve of
emotional development. Students will be know how to learn, not just what to economic concerns in Cairns.
taught invaluable life skills like gardening, learn. Investing in your child’s education Could Cairns overcome the COVID-19
cooking and sewing, as well as critical especially in the early years of childhood
literacy and numeracy skills. is an investment in our future.” downturn by becoming a hub for
After a couple of years of hard work and The school is now taking enrolments for overseas students? Study Cairns
many bureaucratic hurdles, TSNN Board children entering Prep to Class 3 next President Janine Bowmaker certainly
Director Julie Verri is thrilled to soon year. thinks so, along with the rest of the
region’s education sector, which typically
provide a holistic education system to the
Douglas Shire community. As the head welcomes about 2700 people on student
and heart behind TSNN, she understands MORE: tropicalnorthsteiner.org visas each year. “Each of these students
bring in about $60,000 per annum to the
region,” she said. “COVID is decimating
our industry like it is tourism. The lack
of action is slowly and quietly destroying
New schools 2022. The College will initially open a sector that’s been of huge economic
benefit to our region.”
The Cairns Catholic with a Year 7 class and add a new cohort With all the talk on quarantining
returning Australians in Cairns, Member
each succeeding year until 2027. Its
Diocese offers up two construction will coincide with another for Leichhardt Warren Entsch also threw
contemporary education choices major development to MacKillop his support behind a student intake,
for local families. Catholic College in Mount Peter. Stage projecting the move could be a “very,
very critical economic trigger.” The
Newman Catholic College, a new 4 of the school’s upgrade, also due to Queensland Government
bring in the 2022 school year, will see
800-student secondary school, is set would need to approve a
to be built on James Cook University’s the completion of 18 new classrooms proposal being put on the
equipped with cutting-edge facilities.
Smithfield campus. It will be the first PM’s desk – something
Catholic school situated on a university The new renovation will specifically South Australia and the
cater to the school’s secondary students,
precinct in Australia, featuring an indoor with its first senior cohort to graduate Northern Territory have
sports court, five design technology successfully done in
classrooms, four science lab classrooms in 2025. recent months. Janine Bowmaker
and a library. The development is due Study Cairns
to be completed in December next year,
ready to receive students in January MORE: cns.catholic.edu.au MORE: studycairns.com.au

26 • Tropic • Issue 26