| Maintaining
partnerships
Of
course, maintaining the partnership between the school and
its community takes a lot more work and goodwill from all
concerned. Here are some of the school's current practices
that assist in this step towards improving outcomes for its
Aboriginal students.
Contact with parents
Each teacher is expected to visit the house of each child
in his or her care.
Lyn Coote talks about how it's done.
 I
think part of it is in the approach. Mine is that I knock
on someone's door and then step right off the veranda and
wait to be invited to sit. And I don't assume I'm ever going
to be invited into anyone's house, and that's fine. Sometimes
it's an informal chat, sometimes it's about more serious
things.
We often have these chats outside. And that's
not only with Aboriginal parents, that's with non-Aboriginal
parents as well. But it's different for everyone and some
people have cake and coffee, but it's not something I expect.
Parents are getting used to home visits now
and they expect them. We certainly don't have parents saying
'don't come'! And they want to hear what's happening with
their child. In my experience Aboriginal parents definitely
want to see that as a teacher you're trying your best. And
surely that's the same of any parent.
In some ways it's great for the staff because
it actually does help if you get to know the child's background,
and how families come in different shapes and sizes. You
don't learn this stuff at Uni.
Visiting also sets an expectation that the
school is interested, will come to you and expects you to
be involved. We're not going to reinforce any perception
that you send your kids off to school and that's the last
you hear about it until they get kicked out.
Also, our attendance policy really operates
at the relationship level. On the second day of absence,
teachers make contact with the family. So there's no easy
option for kids to just wander off down the street without
parents getting to know about it.
We're genuine about this. We want Aboriginal
parents to know that we have the expectation that their
kids will succeed in this school just like we expect anyone
else to succeed.
Aboriginal
culture in the school
Darren
Boyce explains:
The
bottom line is that culture and identity are inseparable.
If the school demonstrates that your culture is valid, and
it's a part of the school, then it's recognising your identity
as well. So instantly that person is empowered because they
are part of this place.
The flags are flying out the front and everyone
knows that the dominant cultural group in the school is
Aboriginal. There's an acknowledgement on everyone's part
that that culture is a strong part of this school.
It was emphasised just the other day. A group
of parents stood up at a meeting and basically said they
send their kids here because it's a family place and they
were brought up living together and caring for each other.
So they like that, it's no big deal but it fits in with
the culture.
For teachers, we have had residential Aboriginal
cultural retreats.
We don't think of ourselves as just
an Aboriginal school, but we're definitely not a mainstream
white school that caters for Aborigines on the side.
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