2003 Projects - Beenleigh State School

1. Beenleigh State School
2. Jacob’s Well EEC
3. Maroon OEC

Logan Beaudesert
Logan Beaudesert
Boonah/Ipswich

1. Primary
2. All grades
3. All grades

500
3000 per year
5000 per year

Low socio-economic
All state schools
All state schools

Name

Jan Irwin

Position/role in school

Teacher- Beenleigh State School

Where did it fit in the school – curriculum, level?

SOSE for all levels

Beenleigh State School: Liaise with centres and Yugambeh Museum to compile information for cooperative teaching units. Construct info-orienteering courses to be available for other schools to visit. Construct Yugambeh information board in school office area. Involve students in Indigenous experiences at Jacob’s Well EEC and Maroon OEC on a yearly basis. Continue staff development/ provide staff development for other schools. Organise a yearly NAIDOC event. Publish Indigenous art web knowledge hunt website.

Maroon OEC. Construct info-orienteering courses. Compile information for teaching units. Support teachers to construct info-orienteering courses. Construct Ygarapul information board for visiting schools and teachers. Staff development to Beenleigh State School on environmental awareness and cooperative teaching strategies to enhance civic and citizenship development.

Jacob’s Well EEC. Advertise Stradbroke Island Indigenous ‘one day experience’ and three-week work unit. Extend Indigenous work units. Construct info-orienteering course/native plant information. Provide support for schools to construct info-orienteering courses.

S.O.S.E
Science
All KLAs

Why was this project chosen?

The overall outcome of this initiative is to extend awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, history and contemporary issues to as many Queensland teachers and students as possible. The reason for this being to extend knowledge of our country's history and in particular contact history and its repercussions. This will encourage a greater and fairer understanding of the processes that enabled Australia to become the nation it is today. All Australians need to know their history as part of civics and citizenship education. (“Those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it’ Martin Luther King) The learning of this area needs to be coupled with a greater involvement with and understanding of our environment and the need to preserve it as well as the need and the benefits of working cooperatively with others, accepting differences without judgement developing civic awareness, the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen.

This success of this initiative will be demonstrated by;

The number of schools interested in accessing the Indigenous experiences offered by the centres and the number of teachers who access the Indigenous key learning areas web page and the Indigenous art web page published by Beenleigh State School.

A before and after survey given to students and teachers who visit the centres.

Comments by teachers of the centres and the visiting schools on the interest level and knowledge level of students and teachers.

Improvement in citizenship and civics understanding as teachers and students work cooperatively and embark on environmental care programs within their schools, involving their local council.

To bring an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander perspective to the existing curriculum.

Beenleigh State School and Jacob’s Well EEC have an established partnership with environmental issues. Beenleigh students have a tradition of visiting JWEEC as part of the year 4 science syllabuses but this year this partnership has been enhanced with the Year 7 group visiting JWEEC for a SOSE Indigenous experience. The Year 7 teachers engaged in a four-week program before the visit and then a two-week program after the visit. There were significant connections with the JWEEC and Beenleigh teachers and excellent learning for students and teachers. The Beenleigh Year 7 teachers are keen to incorporate this program as part of Year 7 SOSE.

Beenleigh SS teachers intend to further develop their partnership with Yugambeh Museum with NAIDOC celebrations this year taking the form of visits to the Yugambeh museum and engaging with a program to increase understanding of the Yugambeh people and Indigenous people in general.

Jacob’s Well EEC is developing strong partnerships with the Indigenous people of Stradbroke Island and with the grant money they are now able to further their ties with the Indigenous community by developing the traditional food trees garden for visiting schools to experience.

Maroon OEC is increasing knowledge for all visiting school about Indigenous people by adding Indigenous information to their programs and developing information boards on the local people, traditional food, traditional customs etc

MOEC and BSS will continue their partnership with visit every second year by the upper school.

Which students were involved?

How long did it run for?

At this stage, BSS is the only one of the partnership to spend money. JWEEC and MOEC have been busy organising their committees and researching the information they wish to present to the schools and communities who visit them. They will be spending their allocation of the budget this term. BSS will spend the remainder of their budget on their NAIDOC experience this term.

What did you do?

I provided the experiences of the previous year and encouraged school to take their own directions to meet the desired outcomes.

At this stage, BSS is the only one of the partnership to spend money. JWEEC and MOEC have been busy organising their committees and researching the information they wish to present to the schools and communities who visit them. They will be spending their allocation of the budget this term. BSS will spend the remainder of their budget on their NAIDOC experience this term.

JWEEC and MOEC have carefully designed programs that will continue and will be self-funding. BSS will continue partnerships with Yugambeh Museum, JWEEC and MOEC with students funding the experience. BSS can easily continue teaching with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander perspective at no cost!

How did you do it?

Beenleigh State School has experienced a whole school change, that has resulted in a determination to continue their learning process, due to the 2003 grant which enabled;

• Staff, students and community members to experience traditional and contemporary Aboriginal culture through the medium of a community day, NAIDOC event.
• Staff and students to learn about the local indigenous people, the Yugambeh people.
• Senior students to learn about traditional and contemporary indigenous culture.
• Staff to learn ‘Australian Contact History’ through staff development sessions.
• Teachers to access and use materials to give an Aboriginal perspective in the classroom.
• Beenleigh State School to forge strong ties with the Yugambeh Museum in Beenleigh.

The main focus of the 2003 grant was to expose people to our Indigenous culture and encourage teaching with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspective. In 2004 I would like to extend the boundaries of this to include many Queensland schools and develop the concept to include a civics, citizenship focus to encourage thinking towards the rights and responsibilities of all Australians to the people of our country and to our environment. One way to do this is to work with two education centres that meet with different schools each week and can provide Indigenous information and work units for teachers to use before visiting the centres. I have formed ties with Jacob’s Well Environment Education Centre and their Stradbroke Island Indigenous (Noonuccle) program and Maroon Outdoor Education Centre with their library collection of information and artefacts from the Ygarapul language group. The initiative will encourage civics and citizenship in the curriculum with the development of a better knowledge and understanding of Australian history and in particular the history, culture and contemporary issues of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as well as encourage thinking about the ways in which people interact with others and their environment and ways in which students and adults can use our democratic process to influence governments.

Website

Extra materials

Curriculum resources

Community resources

Evaluation – Overall Outcomes

As a result of this project:

Students’ Activities that Enhanced their Outcomes in Civics and Citizenship Education:

Year 7 BSS students have completed four weeks of work leading up to a one day experience at Stradbroke Island which involved collecting and cooking traditional food and listening to an Elder speak about their local customs, traditional and contemporary way of life.

Reflection (For the future. What happens next? Will project be refocussed? Refined? If so how?)