A Charles Sturt University (CSU) education researcher is starting a study that focuses on young children identified as being gifted. PhD student with the CSU School of Education, Ms Nikki Masters, said the study aims to find out more about the experiences of children identified as gifted as they begin their primary schooling. “For a child identified as gifted, the transition to school may bring different challenges. For example, children already reading may stop reading in the first weeks of school, having realised that other children did not read and were not expected to. When these children are left without appropriate support, emotional, social or behavioural difficulties may occur. While the educational needs of all children must be considered, the intellectual, social and emotional needs of gifted children should be also considered in their schooling.” Ms Masters is seeking children aged four or five years old who are currently attending a pre-school in Albury or surrounding Riverina district during 2012 and will start school in 2013 to gather their stories, as well as the stories of their parents, carers and educators. These children should have been identified as gifted by either their parent or their pre-school teacher. For further details about the research project, send Ms Masters an email.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will join with 42 other higher education providers to showcase its education opportunities to local high school students at the Albury-Wodonga Tertiary Day on Wednesday 22 June in Albury. CSU Prospective Student Adviser, Ms Emily Hill, said the expo provides an important opportunity for students to compare what higher education providers around Victoria, NSW and ACT can offer. “Over 1 200 high school students are due to attend the event, which presents a great oportunity for regional students to access course information from a variety of institutions. The knowledge shared at these events will help students to make informed decisions about their options for life beyond Year 12,” Ms Hill said. The Albury event will run from 9am to 2.15pm in the Albury Entertainment Centre, Swift Street, Albury.

Accessibility and human rights, instead of rigid funding models, should be the priorities when planning health care services for rural and remote Australia says Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Professor of Rural and Remote Pharmacy, Patrick Ball. “A model of health care funding for rural and remote Australia should be developed based on fundamental human rights and access to services rather than ‘bricks and mortar’,” Professor Patrick Ball said. The CSU academic studied two communities in central west NSW between 2006 and 2008 as part of his examination of the provision of health services outside metropolitan Australia. “We have the evidence to show that what is needed by rural and remote areas is more flexibility in allowing individual communities to meet their health needs, and more emphasis on access to services, rather than what hospital and which health facilities are located where. Albury can play a crucial role in providing back-up services that cannot be delivered on the doorstep.” Professor Patrick Ball will present a free public lecture on his research from 6pm in Albury on Wednesday 11 May.

A volunteer bicycle recycling group has joined with Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga to provide eight recently renovated bicycles for use by the University’s students. The Border Community Cycleworks will donate eight bicycles re-built by its volunteers for use by students who live and learn at Thurgoona. CSU residential coordinator, Mr Kurt Neville said the contribution from the community group will be used by up to 300 students living on the campus as well as those living in Albury, to be used in and around the Border community. “It is another positive step that Chart Sturt University students can take to reduce their environmental footprint, choosing to ride rather than drive,” Mr Neville said. Border Community Cycleworks aims to promote community development through providing access to cycling to the whole of the Border community, especially by recycling old and unused bicycles and distributing them to the community.

Charles Sturt University (CSU), in association with the Islamic Council of NSW, will present a free screening of documentary In the Footsteps of the Ancestors: Muslims Down Under at CSU in Orange on Friday 13 May. The film captures the ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity of Muslims in Australia, and tells the stories of Muslim pioneers and their descendants, beginning with the pivotal, fundamental role the Afghan camel herders played in the development of outback Australia, to the successful integration Muslims have made into modern Australian society. Documentary producer Ms Nada Roude says the documentary encourages a greater effort in understanding and appreciation of Islam and Muslims where sharing knowledge and stories is one of the most important ways of building a genuine sense of community in Australia. “It strengthens the belief in fairness, equality and respect, the values we aspire to in Australia.”

The Border community will receive a glimpse of modern Indigenous art when Wiradjuri visual artist Ms Leonie McIntosh presents a free public lecture on her work at Charles Sturt University (CSU) this Friday 13 May. Ms McIntosh is a practicing artist, an active member of the Albury-Wodonga Indigenous community, and is currently lecturing in Indigenous art with first year students in CSU’s Murray School of Education. The free public lecture will start at 10am in the CD Blake Lecture Theatre, CSU in Albury-Wodonga, off Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, Thurgoona. Ms McIntosh will also lead workshops with CSU education students as part of CSU’s Visiting Artist Program.

Education students from Charles Sturt University (CSU) will show Border parents ideas and resources for raising young children at an expo to be staged in Lavington on Tuesday 24 May. Aimed at parents of children aged up to three years, final year students have researched and developed demonstrations surrounding hot topics in early childhood, including childcare services in Albury-Wodonga, encouraging literacy, and overcoming separation anxiety for children and parents. CSU students Ms Heather Wilson and Ms Hannah Oberin said they will “provide brochures and information packages on childcare centres around Albury-Wodonga that help parents with tips on what to look for when sourcing quality care for their children”. In exploring fostering early literacy, Ms Angela Fogarty said parents “can carry out practical ideas that can be used in the home to build a love for important aspects of literacy such as reading”. The Parent Information Expo will run from 10am to 12noon on 24 May in the Mirambeena Community Centre, 19 Martha Mews, Lavington.

An experienced education manager has been appointed the inaugural manager of Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Wangaratta Study Centre. Ms Robyn Farley, who has lived on a small mixed farm near Chesney Vale since 2001, has previously worked for the University of Wollongong and Goulburn Ovens TAFE (GOTAFE) and has postgraduate qualifications in applied science and in education. "I believe it is vital that we enhance opportunities for regional students to undertake quality tertiary education studies locally, and that this can be done through educational partnerships such as the one recently formed between Charles Sturt University and GOTAFE in Wangaratta,” Ms Farley said.  The Wangaratta Study Centre will offer CSU degrees in agriculture and agricultural business management from 2013 to vocational education and training diploma holders who have completed appropriate courses. “We are looking to offer other higher education programs at Wangaratta in coming years, including nursing from 2014,” Ms Farley said.

The education of teachers has been a core part of Charles Sturt University (CSU) and its predecessor institutions since 1947 with the establishment of the Wagga Wagga Teachers’ College. A public forum will be held on Tuesday 24 May to discuss teachers’ important role in our diverse society. “Everyone's talking about the need for great teachers in every classroom, so how do we produce quality teachers?” asks Head of the School of Education  at CSU in Wagga Wagga, Associate Professor Roslyn Brennan Kemmis. “In our increasingly complex society, it is important that we examine the university subjects offered to education students to ensure we prepare them for a world that is rapidly changing. We need to produce teachers that are lifelong learners and agents of change within the reality of today’s schools and prepare students as 21st century teachers.