The program will feature the best of the best from previous regional White Night events alongside new elements that showcase the region’s landscape, culture and history.
Local tourism, hospitality, accommodation and retail businesses are set to benefit from an influx of visitors, with a crowd of up to 30,000 expected to attend White Night Shepparton.
White Night will transform Shepparton through illuminations, projections, music and interactive works from talented local and national artists.
Visitors can also explore the new Shepparton Art Museum, which opened its doors in November 2021, after a major redevelopment backed by a $12.5 million investment from the Victorian Government.
The Shepparton event will be the first White Night celebration for the year, with White Night Bendigo taking place on September 3 and White Night Geelong on October 8.
Since the first White Night in Melbourne in 2013, the event has built a strong reputation as a vibrant and inclusive celebration of immersive art and community participation.
White Night has attracted large crowds to regional events in Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong in previous years, acting as tourism driver and a source of civic pride for its host cities.
A festival of winter
Woorineen WinterFest will be held on Sunday, June 19 from 2pm to 7pm at the Woorinen South Community Centre and Recreation Reserve.
The festival will feature live music, food trucks, cosy fires, face painting and lantern making.
There will be a lantern parade and the evening will end with a fireworks display. Entry is free.
Leading up to the festival there will be a yarn bombing competition, which will be open to all Woorinen district households.
If you live in the Woorinen district you are invited to enter. First prize is a space heater donated by Harvey Norman Electrical, Swan Hill, as well as prizes for second and third places.
New curriculum website
The new Australian Curriculum website, hosting the updated and approved Australian Curriculum, Version 9.0, has been launched.
The specially built website v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au has been designed with teachers for teachers and is one of the few digitalised curriculums in the world.
ACARA CEO David de Carvalho said the new website was going to give teachers control over the way they view the curriculum and make their work easier.
“Teachers will be able to quickly and intuitively find relevant information, and lessons can be more easily planned,” he said.
The new Australian Curriculum sets high expectations and standards for what all students should know and be able to do, and was endorsed by education ministers on April 1.
Mr de Carvalho said the new national curriculum was a “more stripped-back and teachable curriculum” that supported deeper conceptual understanding and improvement in educational performance.
Teachers have easy access to all areas of the curriculum through a selector tool and the website includes advice about planning and implementation, exploring the different dimensions, and how to access various resources.
Updates to the functionality of the website and further teacher resources will be rolled out in subsequent releases as they are developed to support teaching the new curriculum.
The website meets the terms of reference of the Australian Curriculum Review, which included improving “the digital presentation of the Australian Curriculum in line with agreed content changes and user experience requirements”.
The new curriculum will be implemented by schools according to the timelines and approaches set by each state and territory education authority.
Some jurisdictions may start supporting their teachers to become familiar with Version 9.0 in 2022 in preparation for starting to teach some or all learning areas from 2023.
Celebrating our nurses
To mark International Nurses Day, the Australian College of Nursing is highlighting the wide scope of ways nurses shape the health of all Australians.
The global day of celebration is an International Council of Nurses initiative that shines a spotlight on the crucial role nurses play in providing care at all stages of life, from birth to death.
It is held on May 12 each year to acknowledge the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth in 1820.
“This year’s theme is ‘Nurses: A Voice to Lead — Invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health’,” ACN CEO Kylie Ward said.
“Nursing is the nation’s largest professional group. With more than 400,000 nurses in Australia we have the ability to influence the health of the nation and significantly impact global health and universal health care.
“All decision makers and politicians should be seeking our expert advice and solutions to address health disparity.”
Chamber music returns
After consecutive COVID-forced cancellations in 2020 and 2021, the Tasmanian Chamber Music Festival is confident it will be a case of third time’s a charm in 2022.
The boutique festival is set to finally return to Tasmania’s northern midlands this October, bringing with it a welcome boost to the state’s arts and tourism sectors.
This year’s festival is designed with two consecutive programs, meaning even more patrons will be able enjoy the magic of world class chamber music in the region’s historic venues, while maintaining safe distancing.
The two three-day programs will see performances by the world-renowned Goldner String Quartet, acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes, duo Erin Helyard and David Greco, harpist and broadcaster Genevieve Lang and one of Australia’s most revered classical musicians, Piers Lane.
Festival director Allanah Dopson said it was exciting to be able to bring such a diverse and talented line-up of musicians to Tasmania after an extremely challenging period for performing arts festivals.
“When we made the difficult decision to call 2020’s festival off, we vowed to return more special than ever in 2021. After not being able to do that, we’ve doubled down for 2022,” Ms Dopson said.
