The Taskforce met for a fourth time on Thursday 7 February. Here are a few points about that meeting and some other information about the work of the Taskforce:

• We had an extremely interesting presentation from Brian Caldwell, former Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania and an educationalist of international renown. He talked about how education is being delivered around the globe and made particular reference to new thinking in the design of school buildings.

• We also heard from Natalie Jackson, an Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania who specialises in demography. She was able to give us very useful information about the population profile in our area at present and what we can expect it to look like in the future.

• Because of the complexity and volume of the material which has been presented, the Taskforce has scheduled two more meetings, one on Wednesday 20 February and the other on Tuesday 18 March. Otherwise the timeline remains as previously published.

• The focus groups have been going ahead and more are planned, including one for teachers. Sadly we have had to cancel two of these because we did not have enough takers.

• The Public Workshop will take place on Wednesday 20 February at 5.00pm at The Hilltop Granton. This workshop will be run by independent consultant Janine Combes with some input from Taskforce members. Please phone Brighton Council on 6268 7000 to reserve your place. We are limited to 100 for this workshop but if there is greater demand we will try to organise another one.

• Another group called the Educational Reference Group has now met three times. This group is made up entirely of professional educators and has been feeding educational information to the Taskforce. While this group will present possible models to the Taskforce, it will have no say in what recommendations go forward to the Minister.

Should you wish to ask questions about any of this or make a comment, please do so by e-mail to david.forshaw@education.tas.gov.au