Indigenous Education
St Joseph’s School has 4.1% of its enrolments who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We actively encourage and support these students to develop their academic potential and grow in their cultural understanding and knowledge.
St Joseph’s school students write and perform an ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ at its’ weekly line ups, assemblies and other important events such as Sports’ Day, Swimming Carnival, school concert etc.
St Joseph’s teaching and support staff consistently and actively pursue opportunities for training and development in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and understanding. This is facilitated via regular professional development every term.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Focus Teacher
St Joseph’s supports an active Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Focus teacher, currently it is Tim Packer.
This role includes:
- Engagement with Indigenous families in our community
- Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students develop their social, emotional, spiritual, cultural and educational potential
- Supporting staff with their understanding and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language and current perspectives and issues.
- Attend training and professional development
- Support, encourage and attend cultural opportunities with students
Personalised Plan for Learning (PPL)
Every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student at St Joseph’s has an Personalised Plan for Learning (PPL) which is developed to assist their development as a learner. These plans help us to understand student, family and school goals and aspirations for all students. They enable all to express their interests, challenges and dreams and allows the school to listen and respond accordingly.
St Joseph’s is actively involved in a Reconciliation Action Plan or RAP. This plan allows the school to demonstrate to the wider community what Reconciliation means to our school. The RAP also highlights areas of reconciliation the school is actively developing and more importantly areas for us to improve upon. We are constantly reviewing and updating our RAP to reflect our growing ability to understand Indigenous culture and perspectives.
Reconciliation Action Plan
Our vision for Reconciliation was developed by staff and parents and is outlined below.
Reconciliation is embedded and reflected in all aspects of our teaching and learning and wider roles our schools supports. We recognise active reconciliation strengthens all relationships and promotes positive understanding, acceptance and equality in our school and wider community.
We will celebrate and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, being mindful of their contributions to our lives, past present and future.
Our choice is to walk with and work together towards Reconciliation with open minds and hearts of love for all. Reconciliation is about walking together, even if our paths have been different.
Our role is to connect our students, our wider community and ourselves with the history and culture of Indigenous communities. Actively pursuing this will enable us all to continue to build students with an increasing understanding and knowledge of Indigenous perspectives in our modern Australia.
This RAP encourages and supports our school and its wider community to work towards an agreed set of goals as set down by Narragunnawali. This not for profit organisations is assisting all educational sites and work places across Australia to develop practises and procedures that enable a deeper understanding and knowledge of Indigenous culture to occur.
Indigenous Celebrations at St Joseph’s
All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are invited to attend various events organised by Catholic Education throughout the year. These celebrations encompass recognising the importance of education, plus there is an opportunity to learn about culture and language at the ‘Children’s Celebration’ in Adelaide. Finally, all Indigenous students plan our excursions in conjunction with Ngadjuri elders. This includes fire, talking, stories, cooking and culture.
St Joseph’s, Clare supports and acknowledges many special dates and occasions related to Indigenous history and reconciliation through the year. We choose to develop our students’ understanding throughout our curriculum, especially in The Arts, History and Geography.
All classes actively celebrate National Reconciliation week in late May to early June, NAIDOC week in July and Indigenous Literacy Day in September, via the great book swap. We also partner with the Clare and Gilbert Valley Council to celebrate NAIDOC week together at a community function.