ABORIGINAL

 EDUCATION

ABORIGINAL EDUCATION 

It has been an incredibly busy end of the school year, but one that we can look back on with an enormous amount of pride. Term 4 we have introduced Kai-Mani Smith and Leila-Jo Smith from Wati Barray Guyal to work with our students Aboriginal Dance Group – we have created our own dances this term and had our first performance at the Cessnock Walks Kawuma and followed by the Clontarf End of Year awards. The dance group has built considerably this term with 42 students attending in the 6 week program. 

This term we have also started implementing a tutoring program with our students, we welcomed Peta McHugh, Anja Atkinson and Riley Jones as support our students in both academic and life skills activities, the engagement in this program has been impressive with around 65 students across years 7, 8, and 9 engaging in this program. 

Dream Together 

Our Dream Together Program introduced a Kuta Kaya class this Term and we have seen incredible engagement and art skills with our students with many wonderful art creations, engagement, discussions and connections. This program will be continued in 2025 as we ensure our program is an inclusive and embracing space 

Dream Together has also run Stage programs (Stage 4,5,6) which entails wellbeing, engagement and community engagement experiences. There is building interest in this program, so if you child is interested next year, please be sure to ge them to come and see me in the Dream Together room. 

Our Entrepeneur Program (Dream Weavers) welcomed a very generous donation from Weston Workers  Club as a Clubgrant program. This generous donation supports our Entrepeneurs as they develop plans and work on their individual projects. As a further commitment to the program, Anthony and Clint from Weston Workers came to KKHS to present our cheque and spent time discussing business and mentoring. Weston Workers have offered one of our students the opportunity to attend to explore her business within the Workers Club – watch this space. 

To support our Dream Together program growth and opportunities, we recently submitted a SchoolsPlus Grant and went through several stages to the final interview, we will await a decision on the grant announcement in December.  Should we be successful, this grant will have a significant impact on the support and growth of the Aboriginal Girls program that we are currently lacking including camps, excursions, incursions and mentoring programs which will build on the work already undertaken in our space. 

We have seen an increase in Engagement this year with our students, including the inclusive addition of our non-Indigenous peers, both boys and girls being welcomed into our space and creating a safe and nurturing environment for our whole school community – this approach is bringing our school community closer together and accepting and celebrating our differences. 

Clontarf

Graduates Major Camp

In early November,some of our Clontarf Graduates from 2024 attended their Major Camp to Darwin. The boys chose this location themselves and despite the slight delay (9hours) at Newcastle airport, had an incredible time as you can see from the photos, with site seeing activities and work site visits! 

Massive shout out to Noah Evans and Andrew Ryan for accompanying the boys! 

What a fantastic experience for these boys! Let see where 2025 will choose.....

Clontarf Awards

We had a great turn out of Clontarf corporate sponsors, parents and Clontarf staff for the Annual Clontarf Awards in the last week of November.  It was amazing to celebrate our students and the incredible successes they have achieved throughout the year! Thank you also to those students who performed on the night, having backed up from dancing at the Cessnock Walks Kawuma event in the morning.