Poor health is a major stumbling block to effective learning. It can entail absence from school or, where attendance occurs, it can seriously impair students' capacity to learn.

Australia's Indigenous population suffers from comparatively high rates of lower life expectancy at birth, low birthweight and failure to thrive in infancy, poor quality diet, disease, low levels of social and emotional wellbeing, substance misuse, childhood trauma and injuries.

Consider that learning is derived from perception — seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling and the kinaesthetic sense, awareness of your own body, its 'place in space' and its relation to other animate and inanimate objects. These are how we derive information about the world. If one or more of these functions are impaired or, for that matter, particularly acute, assumptions about what is conventional will not apply.

Conventionally, learning at school is heavily dependent on being able to see and hear well. The comparatively high incidence of hearing and other sensory impairment among some Indigenous children mean that these are matters for sensitive attention.

It is important that teachers are aware of these issues and how they might impact on schooling. But, remember that schools and teachers by themselves are not equipped to deal comprehensively with them as they present in students. A teacher's priority should always be the delivery of the best curriculum in the best way possible.

What educators can do

Education can play an important preventive role and help to break the cycle. Some proven approaches are as follows.

• As always, partnerships with local Indigenous communities and health agencies are required for effective action.
• Where appropriate, teachers can investigate whether or not students have any hearing or vision impairment and then involve other agencies.
• Where such impairments exist, teaching processes may have to be modified to take account of them.
• Hungry kids can't concentrate. Providing food has been criticised as outside the province of schools and training institutions, a welfare operation which builds dependency. But if a Vegemite sandwich makes the difference between a good session and one which is disrupted, then, in the short term, a Vegemite sandwich might be the way to go.