Culture, literacy and numeracy

AEW, Rosemaree Whitehead

Originally from Queensland, Rosemaree now lives in the ACT and will soon complete a teaching qualification. She applied for the position at Narrabundah PS after she had seen a newspaper article about the Koori Classroom…

I thought to myself, well this has got to be a school that's dedicated to improving opportunities for our Koori kids. So that was the main reason I applied for the position.

I've found that the Koori Classroom means a lot to the Koori community. They're really over the moon about it. They say things like 'we've finally got our own room… for years we've been going into the whitefella's room but now we've got our own'.

The Koori Classroom is positive in the way that Aboriginal culture is being promoted in a positive way and that's for the whole school not just Koori kids. Non-Indigenous children can also see that Aboriginal culture is a positive thing.

And the Koori Classroom is a starting point for literacy and numeracy as well.

As an Indigenous person who hopes to be a teacher soon, I'd say that our children need to feel accepted and valued in the classroom. And that they belong.