Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander News

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Team have been busy over the past few weeks with many exciting events and activities. For the first few weeks of the term the team focused on supporting our new Year 7’s to settle into High School life. Fortunately our new students have done a great job of finding their feet and they seem to have settled in well. In Week 4 we also held an Afternoon Tea for our new Year 7 students where we addressed any questions or concerns that they had and we discussed opportunities available to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, particularly our PRIDE Program. 

After settling the Year 7’s into the O’Connor Community our focus shifted to running our regular PRIDE sessions as well as a very busy schedule of general student support both within and outside the classroom. During Week 5 PRIDE Sessions were run for Year 7 & 8 and Year 9 & 10 students. These sessions were titled ‘Who’ya mob?’ and they focused on the importance of connection to clan and community for Aboriginal people. We spent time discussing where we all fit and some of the challenges caused by the Stolen Generation and Colonisation in general. We also had some fun playing games and completing other activities. It was a fantastic start to our 2025 PRIDE Program.

Parent and community involvement at school is very important to us and as a way to kick start this for 2025 we held a parent and community morning tea on Thursday the 6th March. A number of parents and community members attended and shared a cuppa and yarn with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Team as well as a number of Teachers, Education Assistants and the School Leadership Team. We plan to hold more of these types of events across the year and parents and families are welcome to visit the school to have a yarn and a look at what the team gets up to in supporting your children.

Mr James Russell

ATSI Focus Leader