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An
Indigenous presence: Moruya Public School, New South Wales
'Working
with the community'
The
context
Moruya
is on the South Coast of New South Wales, nearly 300 kilometres
from Sydney. It has a population of about 6000 and the Eurobodalla
Shire is considered to have the lowest average income of any
in New South Wales. There are two primary schools and a secondary
school.
Moruya
Public School has about 500 students, of whom 12-15% are Indigenous.
In 1997, the then Principal, Doug Godwin, and the school community
embarked on a program to:
- Promote stronger ties between the school and the Koori
community.
- Improve the literacy skills of Koori students.
- Improve the attendance and classroom engagement of Koori
students.
The
following three programs are aspects of this improvement effort. |
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| In-Class
Tutoring |
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Chris
Simmons is the coordinator of the In-Class Tuition program.
She has been teaching at Moruya for nine years, after
spending four years at Gundagai.
She
talks about the In-Class Tutoring program, which is
funded by the Australian government through DEST's Aboriginal
Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ATAS).
 Many
Koori parents haven't had much success themselves
at school, so a lot of Koori kids come to school without
the background and 'school knowledge' that others
kids have. So they're starting at a disadvantage.
That's why early intervention, extra early assistance
is so vital. If the kids get behind early on it's
much harder for them. But if you can get them successful,
then there's much more chance of them attending, staying
on at school and doing well at high school.
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Chris
Simmons
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So
we've tried to provide assistance where it's needed
and the Koori tutors are part of that. This year we
have four tutors, each for three hours per day on
four days of the week. They work with a total of 20
kids.
I'm
pleased with the results because I've taught Year
1 for the past three years and I can monitor improvement.
Their self-esteem improves, their academic achievements
are better and their attendance is better. They just
blossom. It's not only because of the tutors but that's
part of a whole program.
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A
lot of Koori kids are very shy when they first
come to school and having the tutor there beside
them they'll ask the tutor questions that they
won't ask the teacher. It just gives them that
in-between person that they need. The questions
are often simple but they won't ask the teacher.
They're still getting used to a range of people.
We
want Koori parents to be happy with the school,
but we know that some of them haven't had good
relationships with schools in the past. So it's
hard. But when they see their kids succeeding,
getting somewhere, well that's a good start.
Everyone wants their kids to do well at school,
of course they do.
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What
really makes a difference is early intervention
and explicit, systematic teaching. That's up
to the teacher, but the tutors and other staff
can be a part of it.
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An
In-Class Tutoring Program is also discussed on this website
in the material about Kempsey South Public School.
Read
about Kempsey South... |
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Maths
in Context
| 'Maths
in Context' is a NSW Department of Education and Training
program. Chris talks about what's happened at Moruya.
First
we had meetings with our local Aboriginal community
and we worked with them to help decide the topics
for Maths in Context. They talked about things that
were important to them, such as fishing and wood carving.
Then
we had a day with [Aboriginal Education Assistant]
Craig Connell, plus four community people and four
teachers and we mapped out where we were going to
go from there.
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And
now we've written units for Stages 1, 2 and 3. We looked
at the areas where our Koori kids weren't doing so well
and we tried to design units to deal with that.
You
can get Maths out of all these things. With the fishing
one, we'll be going to the river, doing mapping and using
compasses. Then we're going to do all sorts of experiments
with fishing lines and hooks and sinkers and get into 3-D
shapes and tessellations. Then there's breaking strains
of fishing lines. And then we're going to South Head and
we'll have a day out there where Koori people will come
and talk about middens.
Then
we'll be dealing with beach worms. Stage 1 will just be
finding something on the beach that they predict will be
the same length as a beach worm. They won't have seen a
worm yet. Stage 2 kids are actually going to have to predict
in centimetres how long a beach worm might be.
And
we are going fishing as well for the maths in it, but a
lot of parents will come with us. Two local Koori families
who fish commercially for a living are going to throw a
net out for us from a boat and pull it in for us. They're
also going to give a talk to the whole school at some stage
about what fish they catch in the river and what months
they catch them.
Then
kids will make their own graphs. Stage 1 will just be copying
the teacher's graph but they'll get pictures of the different
fish and stick them in the right places. The stage 3 kids
will to do their own graphs. Part of the new 'working mathematically'
syllabus is that the kids actually have to pose their own
questions, so each child will make up a question and they'll
swap questions. Such as 'what's a good month to fish for
a particular fish?'
Stage
3 will also go to the extent of putting a monetary value
on each fish and how you could make the most money from
fishing.
But
the thing is that there will be ten to fifteen activities
that the kids will move through in a very structured and
supported way. And for teachers, we're giving them all the
resources they need to teach like this. They won't have
to do extra preparation.
And
each child will be having a 'learning journey'. At the end
of every activity, they'll write about it. So at the end
we'll have a lot of information about what they did and
how they did it.
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| Koori
mentors: The Bullroarer |
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| 'The
Bullroarer' began as a newsletter for Koori students
in 1997. In 2002 it reappeared in an expanded form and
has been distributed widely in the South Coast. The
following notes are provided by Greg Summerhayes, who
is a teacher specialising in learning difficulties and
who coordinates the Bullroarer:
Beginnings
It
was from the Koori Mentor Program that the current Bullroarer
writing program developed.
Community
meetings were called by the AEA to discuss problems
and come up with solutions. Four Elders put up their
hands to help and became the first mentors. The program
was designed to target identified needs in literacy
development for Stage 2 and 3 children. Pre-program
data was collected and analysed and used to direct the
program.
Weekly
training sessions were organised and daily delivery
of the program started. |
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The
program targets children's needs within the school and is
part of a whole school approach. It has always been based
on data collection and use. Positive learning outcomes have
been a feature from the start. At the same time, there has
always been a training and upskilling element for the mentors
and community involvement has been ongoing both in design
of the program and in selection of personnel.
Funding
problems are continuing and funding has always been based
on annual application.
Aims
of the program
Specific
aims of Bullroarer include:
- To develop the writing skills of children in Stages 2
and 3 with identified targets.
- To develop a forum for publishing the children's writing
and increase their awareness of audience.
- To improve communication between the school and community
and foster community awareness of activities within the
school.
- To continue to improve the job skills of our tutors and
workers.
- To produce a quality product which 'looks good on the
bookshelf' and would be a source of pride for the children
and the community.
The
children work as a team, usually of two or three members,
mixing older and younger, or experienced and less experienced.
Each team works with a mentor for two hours per week for a
period of three or four weeks, or one cycle.
The
production cycle
Each
cycle involves three stages: planning, writing and publishing.
- Planning
At the beginning of the cycle the tutor, facilitator and
community liaison person will get together to plan and organise
for the cycle. Once the topic or theme is decided, pro formas
are written, resources gathered, tasks assigned and timelines
set.
- Writing
Usually at least one visit to a community member, event
or feature is organised to gather information, which is
kept as a resource to draft writing from. The team then
follows the writing process of draft, revise, conference,
edit and proofread ready for publication. By the end of
the cycle the team is expected to have on a single floppy
disc their finished article with any relevant photos and
a suggested layout.
- Publishing
The final copy is then worked on by a Community Development
Employment Program worker using Microsoft Publisher and
printed as a proof copy. The proof copy is returned in a
plastic sleeve for final hand illustration. Then the sleeve
containing the proof copy and photos on disc are given to
the printer. The children are taken in small groups to watch
the printing process in action.
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and lessons learned
- The first issue is the hardest. Once the children
can see and take pride in the finished product motivation
ceases to be an issue.
- Be prepared for change. It is constant, with different
mixes of personalities, times, timetabling restrictions
and class structures.
- Seek feedback as it guides content and provides
a source of pride in the product.
- Distribute widely, as there is nothing children
like better than to find their magazine in other homes,
in waiting rooms, offices and meeting places. The
idea of writing for an audience should be constantly
reinforced.
- Set sights high. Gather and collect samples of children's
writing constantly and analyse it for feedback into
the program. Check for generalisation of outcomes
achieved into the classroom.
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Greg Summerhayes |
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