Yuendumu School
and Sporting Academy has provided the template for all Aboriginal schools – and
every remote community should have a
swimming pool! Nota Bene Tony Abbott,
Prime Minister for Indigenous People – your army of truancy officers won’t work
anywhere near as good as this principal’s methods! These kids will become fluent
and knowledgeable in their own cultures, and later on it will be very easy for
them to learn English and Western knowledges too if they wish – they will
eventually surpass their Western peers with
ease.
---------------------------------------------
Desert school: teaching
in the N.T.
Can you hear the
collective groan, or squeals of excitement, across Australia this week as
millions of students head back to school? In certain parts of the country,
there's just one bell that rings in class for miles and miles.
In many parts of the
Northern Territory, students attend schools like this - remote schools. One of
which is Yuendumu School, located 300 km northwest of Alice Springs. The
school is headed up by principal Kylie Johnston and potentially famous among
locals for it’s 'no school, no pool' policy.
[My
transcript…mb]
Natasha Mitchell: Today we’re taking you up the Tanami Road,
into the heart of the Tanami desert, 300 kms north of Alice Springs. Kylie
Johnston joins us on the line – she’s the principal of Yuendumu
school.
[Begins talking to
Kylie about the recent rains brining abundant growth]
NM: Take us inside the school – when the gates
open, who will be pouring in them?
Kylie Johnston: O my goodness – I’m going to have children
from pre-school, right up to year 11, I’m going to have children who are very,
very excited to be back at school [tells anecdote about kids calling out to her
- they call her KJ - “When school start?”] which makes me very happy
too.
NM: Multi-age classrooms – do you have all those
children in one class sometimes?
KJ: No, we’ve got our students broken up into
various class levels, we have our pre-school class, our transition year one
class, we have our 2’s 3’s 4’2 and 5’s split up across the primary area, and
then we have our year 6’s and the older students split up into the secondary
area, and they are in separate male-female class
groupings.
NM: Why is that?
KJ: We found that it’s much more culturally
appropriate for us to be structuring our secondary school in that way. We
consult with community on a daily basis and we were given feedback that that is
the preferred way of structuring secondary students in a culturally appropriate
way, especially in regards to how Warlpiri culture is structured and how men and
women work together …
NM: So it’s cultural and its
curriculum.
KJ: Yes – it’s very hard for me to put into
words because it’s not my culture, its Warlpiri culture, but we at the school
very much consult with community how best to operate for this community, so when
I’m given feedback, I take that on board and try to implement that in the
school. [Background - Enjoyed sharing Indigenous peoples’ knowledge and culture
– I’ve learnt so much – it’s been very, very rewarding – the relationships I’ve
made with indigenous people will stay with me for ever. I’ve been here 5 years
and have had an extremely positive experience that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and I
learn something new about Indigenous culture every
day.]
NM: You’re in Warlpiri country, Kylie, and one
of the really defining aspects of Yuendumu School is your bilingual approach in
the classroom – I think it’s called the two-way learning program. Can you
describe for us how that works in practical ways in the classroom from the day
those kids enter preschool?
KJ:
We have what’s described as a bi-literacy program, so students when they
come in and start engaging in pre-school speak Warlpiri – they have minimal
English language skills. So what that looks like in the classroom is that we
provide them with Warlpiri teachers and assistant teachers to work with in
regards to translation and also in regards to them learning to read and write in
Warlpiri. [Excellent! Best practice for all remote schools] We have a bi-lingual resource development
unit that creates texts and resources for the teachers to be able to implement
that program with the students. That program doesn’t just happen in pre-school;
it also happens in early childhood and primary school classrooms and is very
much facilitated by our Indigenous teaching staff.
NM: So is the Warlpiri language taught first and
English is next? Are we thinking of Warlpiri as the first language of the kids
at the school? [Sort of negates the ridiculous Naplan
Test that shouldn’t apply to traditionally living Aboriginal kids – ‘closing the
gap’ in that instance would mean all non-Indigenous kids learning about the
culture of the tribal people on whose land they are living.]
KJ: Warlpiri is their first spoken language – yes –
however, we provide them with the opportunity to learn to read and write in
Warlpiri and in English. So the program starts in preschool, where of course the
majority of the times things are translated because they are so little and have
minimal English skills; however, we do provide them with as much opportunity as
we can to engage in both Warlpiri and English.
NM: Why is that so important at Yuendumu
particularly? Because there’s been lots of debate about this in the territory
and shifting approaches over the years and edicts from government and all that
stuff – but for your school, your experience, why is this seen to be so
important, what are the main markers of its success?
KJ: We deem it to be important because it’s
something that the people of the community have communicated to us that they
would like to be happening in our school. Warlpiri language and culture is very
valued, of course, so we try to work with community as closely as we can and
that’s why we incorporate it.
NM: And do you see it working in the classroom,
in terms of the development of literacy and growth of those
children?
KJ: We are seeing growth in our children and I
think that is due to a number of different things that we do at the school but
especially the bi-literacy program does support that
growth.
NM: One of the big challenges for remote schools
is attendance – in some schools its very low and it might have just 50% of the
local kids attending the school and that’s a real challenge for teachers and
certainly it’s been a focus for the federal government. Is that a problem for
your school? How have you approached this kids coming or going depending on say
funeral business, or special business… How do you navigate that as a teacher?
KJ: We focus on providing positive opportunities
for engagement at school; we have various programs in place to students so that
when they’re coming to school they’re having a positive experience but that
their educational outcomes are also positive for them.
[I’ve heard that some remote schools have
changed their term times to align them with the wet season when the roads are
cut – such adaptation should be adopted for all remote schools – they should
have flexibility to design their own school times and their own curriculum –
hardly fair to expect Aboriginal kids to come up to Western standards when the
non-Indigenous kids don’t have to learn an Aboriginal language and
culture!]
NM: What are some of the approaches that you’ve
taken to encourage kids to attend school? One of the approaches that we’re
utilising, and a lot of people have had input into this, is to implementing our
Yuendumu sporting academy… Now this is a big deal isn’t
it.
KJ: It is a big deal, it’s very important to us
– as I’ve said, lots of different people have worked towards this happening.
Sports are an integral part of this community and we wanted to include that in
our school, particularly targeting our secondary
students.
NM: And also you have a ‘no school, no pool’
policy too I gather – how does that work?
KJ: Basically when the students come to school
we give them a swimming band at the end of the day and they are able to go and
swim at the local pool after school for no charge.
NM: Big carrot stick? [she means, Big
carrot…]
KJ: Very big carrot stick! The students really
enjoy the pool, and like I was saying previously regarding sport, it’s an
integral part of the community and very important to the
children.
NM: What has working there as a teacher brought
you personally?
KJ: Natasha, I’ve been here for five and a half
years and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here thus far, and I’ll be spending
more time here in the future and I look forward to continuing my journey of learning about Indigenous
culture here in Yuendumu.
NM: It’s one of the unique
opportunities…
KJ: Yes it is and one that I appreciate and am
very grateful for.
NM: That’s Kylie Johnston, she is principal of
Yuendumu School in the Northern Territory.
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