SA state conference was held in beautiful Quorn hosted by Marla Oodnadatta Branch. Conference started with “meet n greet” at the Transcontinental Hotel. Finishing the evening off by heading to watch the Silo light show, which was an amazing display of local history.
Friday started with seeing the children head to the community oval for their day of fun activities, treasure hunt around Quorn and supported by local businesses. Heading to the local swimming pool, followed by cricket and netball clinics. By all reports the children had a fabulous day. The Preschool children offered a fun filled day at childcare, hosted by RICE.
The conference had good attendance with great speakers, panels, video presentations and informative discussions. 23 motions were put forward by delegates covering a variety of aspects including but not limited to; the need for improving boarding accessibility for Year 7 students, increasing a number of allowances, a need for a subsidy for the home tutor for distant families and better Child and Family Health Services (CaFHS) for rural and remote families. Sophie Matterson provided a fantastic talk on the gains and pains of hiking across outback Australia from Shark Bay, WA to Byron Bay, NSW with 5 young camels. A fascinating story that she has now written a book about.
The post-conference dinner hosted by the Quorn Sporting group at the Quorn Community oval included a 20/20 cricket match between the ICPA men and the Quorn locals. There were market stalls, face painting, hair braiders and an auction. The aim of the 2024 conference was to include all family members, being relaxing and enjoyable for everyone.
Positive feedback for the conference was positive all-round, some stating “it was one of the best Conferences they had been to!”
Without our generous sponsors like “Connellan Airways” who helped with our bags, and Rural Aid helped with the kids activities the conference would have been a lot harder to run. We cannot thank you enough for allowing the ICPA to remain dedicated to ensuring rural and remote students have equity of access to acontinuing and appropriate education.
We look forward to seeing you all at the Flinders Ranges State Conference in 2025!
Kind Regards
Dani Chapman
Marla Oodnadatta Branch Conference Convenor
