Ballina Information Blog

The Minister for Education and Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Federal Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, visited Ballina Public School today to inspect progress on Building the Education Revolution (BER) projects.
Ballina Public school received $2.35 million under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) initiative for a new school hall and covered [...]

As thousands of Ballina Shire school students returned to school this week, Page MP Janelle Saffin is reminding parents to keep their receipts for educational materials so they can claim the education tax refund at the end of financial year.
“In the next week or so school kids from Kindie to Year 12 will be coming [...]

It took Julie Streader until her mid-40s to finally follow her dream of becoming a teacher.
Now the Bachelor of Education (First Class Honours) student, who will graduate with hundreds of other Southern Cross University students this Saturday, September 19, is already putting her new skills into practice as a casual teacher at Ballina Public School.
“It [...]

Ballina Shire schools are among those in the Page electorate to receive laptop computers in the latest roll out of the Rudd Government’s Digital Revolution.
Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, has welcomed the delivery of 655 laptops to six local high schools in Page.
The laptops are being delivered under the $2.1 billion National Secondary School Computer [...]

Ballina High School’s Joshua Pauling is one of three local students who have been awarded the 2008 Australian Vocational Student Prize (AVSP).
“The AVSP promotes Vocational Education and Training (VET) as a valuable pathway for students,” Member for Page Janelle Saffin said in announcing the awards.
“The three local AVSP winners who have achieved outstanding results in [...]

Six schools in the Ballina Shire area will share grants totalling more than $1 million under the National School Pride program.
The allocations are:

Alstonville High School $200,000
Alstonville Primary School $200,000
Ballina High School $200,000
Ballina Primary School $150,000
Lennox Head Primary School $150,000
Southern Cross School, East Ballina $200,000
Fernleigh Public School $50,00
Rous Public School $75,000

The Federal Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, has reminded Ballina Shire parents struggling with back-to-school expenses to save their receipts so they can claim the education tax refund at the end of this financial year.
Ms Saffin said it can be an expensive exercise providing school kids with all the items they need for school.
“In this [...]

Students from Alstonville High School, Ballina High School, Emmanuel Anglican College West Ballina, Southern Cross School Ballina and Xavier Catholic College Skennars Head are among a record 1899 New South Wales students who will soon be receiving 2008 Australian Defence Force (ADF) Long Tan Leadership and Teamwork Awards.
The students were nominated by their schools for [...]

Schools in the Ballina Shire region can now apply for grants of up to $50,000 to become solar schools under the Rudd Government’s National Solar Schools Program.
The Federal Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, said the commencement of the program delivered on the Government’s election commitment to help all Australian schools to become solar schools.
“Every school is [...]

The high calibre of leaders in local public schools has been praised by the Department’s Acting Director-General, Peter Riordan.
“The strength of school leadership has been boosted by 80 new principals, who attended a principals’ induction conference recently in Sydney,” Mr Riordan said.
Wardell Public School Principal, Peter Flannery, joined colleagues leading schools from Barrenjoey to Barellan [...]