April 11, 2016
A plan by the Nanango Stamp Club to encourage South Burnett school children to take up stamp collecting has exceeded even the club’s wildest expectations.
The Stamp Club launched its South Burnett Schools Stamp Education Program in February, and soon had two schools put up their hands to take part.
Now a further six schools plan to introduce the program in Term 2.
Blackbutt State School was first off the mark, with Year 4 teacher Justin Perrin taking on the role of the school’s stamp club co-ordinator.
When Justin first sought interest from students, it looked as though there would be just seven joining up as junior members.
But when the club kicked off, numbers almost doubled and the Blackbutt School Stamp Club now boasts 13 active members.
One of the new club’s first activities was the distribution of one of the new $1 “Legends of Australian Singles Tennis” stamps to each student so they could write and post a letter to their own home about their interest in stamps.
They were also asked to find out what they could about the tennis player on their stamp, which they will learn to soak as soon as they receive their letter. The club will then undertake a school project on Blackbutt’s own tennis legend, Roy Emerson, who is featured on one of the stamps.
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Benarkin State School began their own school stamp club a few weeks later in early March, with 13 of a possible 16 students from Years 3-6 involved.
Betty Day is acting as this club’s co-ordinator, and the students’ first project was to put Australian bird stamps into name badges (which they can later replace with any other stamp they like), then come back with information about the bird on their stamp.
As with Blackbutt, they were also each given a $1 stamp to use on a letter to home, but theirs were the recently released “Fair Dinkum Aussie Alphabet” stamps.
Students were asked to identify the Australian State and any other Australian things beginning with the letter on their stamp.
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During Term 2, Nanango State High School, St Mary’s Catholic College in Kingaroy, Murgon State High School, Wondai and Taabinga State Schools and St Patrick’s School in Nanango also have plans to start their own school stamp clubs.
Nanango High School has appointed teacher Trevor Firth to co-ordinate their club’s activities.
Trevor is a long-time stamp collector but had passed his collection on to his grandchildren, so he is keen to get back into it again.
St Mary’s Catholic College in Kingaroy has appointed teacher Lawrence Ross to coordinate their activities.
Like Trevor, he is a previous collector and also has a brother who has been involved in the hobby as a stamp dealer.
Murgon High School has appointed previous keen collector and senior teacher Paige Pope as their co-ordinator, while Wondai and Taabinga State Schools are currently in final discussions about when their own stamp clubs will begin and who will co-ordinate them.
But now that classes have resumed, the schools plan to launch their own stamp clubs this term.
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Perhaps most amazing of all is St Patrick’s School in Nanango, which was initially uncertain about joining the program until a promotional effort by one of the school’s students convinced staff to reconsider.
Caleb Richardson, a junior member of the Nanango Stamp Club, put together a display at St Patrick’s to promote the idea and has so far collected the names of 28 other students interested in joining a school stamp club.
Nanango Stamp Club president Graham Coombe said he was delighted with the rapid uptake of the idea by the region’s schools.
“When we started this program we thought we might get one or two schools on board, so having as many as eight is simply wonderful,” Graham said.
He said a minimum of seven students were needed to form a school stamp club, which meant it was something that was within reach of even the region’s small schools.
He also passed on the Stamp Club’s thanks to the South Burnett Regional Council, who had supported the South Burnett Schools Stamp Education Program through a community grant.
