Today was day one of the conference and there were lots of speakers and the positivity of the speakers and the conference attendees was contagious.
For me, the best presentation of the day came from the principal and assistant principal of Narrandera Public School.
The school has great plans to engage the community at various stages of the education its students. When someone in the town has a baby the school send them a little welcome to the world pack. It has some information about the school, a teddy and a book and a few other things. I thought this was a great way to let the parents know that the school community is already a part of their lives and welcoming to the school community well before school age. This breaks down some of the barriers that exist between Aboriginal parents and the school.
Bradley Lyne said in their school there is no negativity, its just not tolerated. There is no whinging there is looking for solutions and they stick very closely to the philosophy of ‘don’t bring me a problem, bring me a solution’.
Both the principal and assistant principal were sharing their experiences of how the school has changed, from “chasing kids around the school playground” to having engaged and meaningful lessons.
This is a school community that is working hard to engage its Aboriginal community and its working and the results are on the rise.
Another speaker at the conference was Noel Pearson. Love him or hate him you can not discount the tireless work that Noel Pearson has put into the education of young Aboriginal people on the Cape York Peninsula. The newest development of which Pearson is the director is the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy. At the Academy staff and students have an extended school days from 8:33am – 4:45pm to ensure students and teachers have time to implement their 4C’s program effectively (Class, Club, Culture and Community).
Pearson described the education of young people in Aurukun as being a supply and demand. This flicked a light bulb on in me, it’s like any product. In theory, if there is a greater demand there will be an increase in supply. In theory this meant if the community and caregivers demanded a better quality of education for their children the response would be a greater supply of education. Pearson explained that this was not the case and the barriers Aboriginal people faced in participating in the process of education were numerous. After a revolving door of government policy Pearson explained the conception of the Academy idea. Which is working.
Pearson touched on previous academic success of the Higher Expectations program. He said it still exists but because of the intrinsically high expectations of the Aboriginal people involved, it’s a self-fulfilling program. '
- more from the conference tomorrow.
I have listed some links for other programs that got a mention today;
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