Anne Norton.
Many people will know Anne Norton from her years in the teaching profession, but last month she joined Project Sprouts as the new coordinator.
Anne said she had attended the initial community meeting in 2018 when Royal Far West presented its “Invisible Children” report bringing to light confronting findings about the state of children’s developmental health in rural and remote Australia. After retiring in 2019, she was keen to join Project Sprouts.
Looking at her new role and the vital part Project Sprouts play in our community, Anne said: “I would love to see children receiving timely and affordable access to local paediatric allied health services via a systematic approach that identifies, screens and provides therapy referrals.
“It will be my role to collaborate and co-ordinate with Royal Far West and the Pro-ject Sprouts Working Party for the provision of these services, and to offer access to educational capacity building sessions for teachers, parents and service providers. I will also be gathering data which will inform our future planning and reporting back to our philanthropic funders and stakeholders.”
Anne started working as a teacher in 1976 and taught at a number of schools around NSW. She moved to Parkes in 2003 when her late husband bought a business here. She joined Middleton Public School (MPS) and worked there until her retirement in 2019.
In 2014 she trained as a Reading Recovery Teacher, and is at present the coordinator of the COVID Literacy and Numeracy Support Team at MPS.
Anne is confident Project Sprouts will ensure all little children in our community are visible and have the best start to formal schooling. “In turn this will lead to confident, productive, resilient young people, who in the long-term will work and positively contribute to the Parkes Shire community.”