The Western Australian Association of Teachers of Italian Inc.
PO Box 92 North Perth
WA 6906 Australia
ABN: 22 669 539 309
GST Exempt
Ciao a tutti i membri della WAATI!
What a busy time we have had already this year and it is only the end of March! It is my honour to have been elected as President of our fantastic association and I promise to do my very best to make sure we all get benefit from our membership. I am keen to learn and to work with the new committee to make WAATI great. I am also most grateful that we will still have Fulvia on the committee to give me advice and support as I endeavour to fill, at least partially, her amazing shoes!!
Please remember that everyone’s registration expires at the end of this month - Thursday, in fact, so make sure your go to the MLTAWA website ( and renew your membership. Can I please implore you to carefully read all the information already on your form as some information may have changed or be incorrect. Please also fill in all the fields, as blank fields mean we have less information about you. We are not psychic! When you pay, it is easiest to do so by Pay Pal, but if you choose to use a EFT, remember to make sure you put YOUR NAME as the reference or it is difficult to trace and your membership may lapse because no-one knows you actually paid. If you choose to send a cheque, please check your bank statements to make sure the cheque has been presented. You will receive a Tax receipt when your membership has been successfully processed.
It was great to see the fantastic WAATI representation at the AFMLTA Ready? Set? Plan! PL hosted by the MLTAWA at Willetton SHS on Saturday, March 12. As usual, the teachers of Italian had the biggest contingent. I’m sure that this is a good indicator that we are indeed the most passionate and committed of language teachers! And not only did we have lots of you at the Saturday PL, but we had an absolutely wonderful group of you at the “Convegno WAATI 2016 – Un Nuovo Inizio” the following day. We certainly are an enthusiastic bunch! Thank you all for giving up your valuable time to attend these events and I trust that you learned lots of useful information and practical ideas, activities, inspiration, news and pedagogy to take away and use in your teaching and professional development. For those of you who were unable to attend the Convegno WAATI you will find some resources and information in the Members Only section of the website really soon. It is always difficult choosing was wonderful to see about 60 people there.
As we also had our AGM at the end of the Conference, we are now in full swing for the new year with a new and enthusiastic WAATI Committee. At the AGM we sadly farewelled Lina Andrews, Angela Melia, Francesca Candaten, Alda Costa and Maria Siciliano who retired from the committee at the moment. In their place we congratulate and welcome Elena Del Bianco, Nalini Demmi, Nadia Civa, Ross Hamilton and Mimma Harrison onto our hardworking committee.
The other and most important part of the AGM was conferring Life membership of WAATI on Fulvia Valvasori, our out-going President. Fulvia has been involved on the committee of WAATI for 29 years straight, which I am sure is a record! She has held almost every position in that time and has spent 12 years as president as well as almost all of them working on the WAATI Student Exchange. She was instrumental in establishing the WAATI Exams as a set standard externally set exam for teachers to use with students in Years 10, 11 and 12. Fulvia’s wealth of knowledge and her passion have been and will continue to be an incredible benefit to our association. Our congratulations go to Fulvia on receiving Life Membership and I know that you will all wish her well as she takes a lesser role on the committee. We presented both Fulvia and John Kinder, our first Life Member, with Life Membership badges and a small trophy to display.
The new committee has a good mix of primary and secondary people, as well as youth and experience and I have no doubt they will serve you well this year. The committee roles are:
President - Lynne Rockliff
also Membership Secretary and MLTAWA Representative
Immediate Past President - Fulvia Valvasori
also Exchange Coordinator and WAATI Exams Coordinator
Vice President - Eliza Knapman
also Assistant Exchange Coordinator and Web Officer
Secretary - Marie Chaperon
Treasurer - Alessandra Hardwick
Assistenti Coordinator - Stefano Rotelli
Assistant Assistenti Coordinator – Ross Hamilton
Professional Learning Coordinator - Nadia Civa
Catering Coordinator - Elena Del Bianco
Assistant Catering Coordinator - Nalini Demma
Student Activities Coordinator - Mimma Harrison
Awards Coordinator - Anne Monisse
PTCWA Representative – Denisse Scassera
Already we have had our first committee meeting and have taken on roles and set dates for meetings for the year. We have also discussed programs for the year, including some interesting and exciting new initiatives for both teachers and students. As we fine-tune the details we will send you more information, so keep an eye out for emails.
Don’t forget that everyone can apply to host an Assistente. You just need to be a financial member. The Assistenti are great at all levels of schooling, so please don’t think they are restricted to just secondary. We have also had many successful placements in rural and regional areas, so do think about adding that little bit more to your program by becoming involved in the program. Applications for Term 3 Assistenti are due by May 20, so don’t miss out. There is nothing like the REAL THING to inspire your students!!
WAATI Exams will be held again this year, so teachers of Years 10, 11 and 12 do keep an eye out for further information about this initiative.
The WAATI Exchange is in full swing with placements being decided this week for the 64 young Italians who will be arriving at the end of June. If you have never been involved in this wonderful program, then maybe this is the year to find out more about it so your school can join the program for next year. It certainly makes and incredible difference to all the students, teachers and families who get involved. It is truly life changing!
In an effort to keep my emails straight and to be sure to not miss anything important for WAATI, I have set up a dedicated email address at . If you have any questions, problems, ideas, etc please feel free to email me. I will try to answer you as soon as possible and if I don’t know something, will endeavour to find someone who can help you. WAATI will only ever be as good as her members, so please, make this YOUR association. Get involved! Come to our events! Have your students participate in our activities! Network! Use our Website! Have you signed up for your access to the Members Only section?
Our website ( is now up and running, but is still a work in progress, so please be patient! We hope to improve it constantly as we go along and add more information, resources and links for you. WAATI is on FaceBook - We also have a Twitter feed - @WAATI_ItalianWA.Please follow us on FaceBook and Twitter to help get the messages about Italian language out there!
Have a wonderful end to the first term and enjoy your well-earned holiday so that you can go back refreshed and ready to show your school that Italian is the way to go!!
Ciao,
Lynne
Lynne Rockliff
President