Snippets

Seat Belts Installed On All School Buses In Regional And Rural NSW

Local students in the Cootamundra electorate will buckle up on every dedicated school bus thanks to the NSW Government’s Rural and Regional Bus Seat Belt Program delivering seat belts on a total of 123 school buses.

The program has installed seat belts on 80 new buses and 43 existing school buses.

Motorists are reminded to slow down to 40km/h when bus lights flash because this means a bus is picking up or dropping off children and that they may be about to cross the road.

The NSW Rural and Regional Bus Seat Belt Program delivered:

Seat belts on the entire fleet of almost 2,600 dedicated school buses in rural and regional NSW
1,145 new buses installed with seat belts, and 883 existing school buses were retrofitted with seat belts.

Multiple Pathways Boosting Teacher Numbers In The Bush

More teachers are on their way to public school classrooms across NSW, particularly in the regions, with the next round of applications for two popular NSW Government teaching programs opening today.

The FASTstream program received more than four times the number of applications than there were places, and the Mid-Career Transition to Teaching program three times the number, in 2021 when they were first offered.

FASTstream supports 30 teachers and 20 teaching graduates each year to develop their careers as school leaders, through the Department of Education School Leadership Institute (SLI). 49 schools across NSW are taking part in the 2022 FASTstream program.

Applications for both programs open today and close on 1 May. For more information visit Teach NSW: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teach-nsw

Campaign To Stop Young People Vaping

Young people are urged to quit vaping and know the facts and dangers of e-cigarettes, which can contain harmful substances found in cleaning products, nail polish remover, weed killer and bug spray.

Many vapes contain nicotine, some at extremely high concentrations, even if they are not labelled as such, and evidence suggests they can lead to a life-long nicotine addiction.

NSW Health has worked with the NSW Department of Education to develop the Vaping Toolkit, which contains evidence-based resources and educational materials for parents, carers, young people and schools, to combat the rising number of children and young people who are trying or taking up vaping.

The campaign will target secondary students to raise awareness of the hidden chemicals in vapes, and provide a re-source for teachers, parents and carers to kick start conversations.

Parents and young people can get the facts about the dangers of vaping by visiting www.health.nsw.gov.au/vaping (images of campaign material also available here).

Safety Barrier Installation Set To Begin On Olympic Highway Between Cowra And Albury

Motorists will soon be better protected along the Olympic Highway with safety barriers to be installed between Cowra and Albury from Monday, 21 March 2022.

About eight kilometres of new barrier will be installed in sections between Cowra and Albury, with most of the work concentrated between Cootamundra and Cowra.

From 21 March 2022 motorists are advised of changed traffic conditions including single lane closures, reduced speed limits of 40 km/h and traffic control.

Work to install the barriers will be carried out Monday to Friday from 7am to 6pm, and Saturdays from 8am to 4pm. Work is expected to take eight weeks to complete, weather permitting.