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Bundaberg West State School - Support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Bundaberg West State School's Strategic Plan includes a range of programs and strategies designed to improve the learning outcomes and engagement of students. In many cases these programs have been used to enhance existing programs for Indigenous students. Strategies outlined in the School Strategic Plan include:

introduction of the 100% Club program and the Every Day Counts strategy which both aim to improve student attendance
employment of a Community Liaison Officer, with a focus on student attendance and support for Indigenous families
development of the Indigenous West Alumni program, which aims to promote a positive approach to school attendance and effort through recognising and rewarding students for effort
employment of Indigenous staff to work in classrooms with students and 'living the Crossing Cultures' program
provision of funding for all students to access extension activities and high interest programs such as Reach In, Reach Out (sporting program), Personal Development Identity Program (run in conjunction with the Bundaberg Indigenous Wellbeing Centre) and the school's Adopt an Elder program
implementation of the Making Connections program linking the school with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members.

These strategies are underpinned by the strong, positive relationships the school has developed with the Indigenous community over many years. The continuing maintenance and enhancement of these relationships is very important to the school, as the school has identified relationships as being the key to the success of education of Indigenous students and making families welcome at the school. Outcomes from the implementation of these strategies include:

a 1.3% increase in the attendance of Indigenous students between 2009 and 2010 to 90.4%
an increase in percentage of Indigenous students attending Bundaberg West State School by 4.4 percentage points from 2008 to 2010
increased home visits by the Community Liaison Officer.

Bundaberg West State School has also focused on building the capacity of staff, in particular the teaching of literacy and numeracy. This agenda is driven by the Curriculum Support Team, who provide coaching for staff, individualised student attention, and monitoring of data. The team is comprised of two teachers who work with external agencies, the principal and staff to ensure the School Curriculum Plan, English, Mathematics, Science and social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are embedded into classroom practice.

The school staff has participated in an extensive variety of professional development to build their capacity, including literacy, numeracy and data analysis. Local teacher exchanges also occur to utilise the local expertise in schools across the cluster.

Ten turnaround teams provided invaluable support to 100 Low SES state schools during 2010, and the state sector Literacy and Numeracy Coaches, highlighted under the Literacy and Numeracy NP, have also provided invaluable support to those Low SES schools that are also involved in the LN NP.

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This page was last reviewed on 27 Oct 2011