ABORIGINAL

 EDUCATION

JAECG  

Students recently attended the Junior AECG Leadership Day hosted by Mount View High School at Cessnock PCYC. The day focused on exploring what makes a good leader through a range of engaging group activities. Students took part in Indigenous games, teamwork challenges, and discussions that encouraged communication and collaboration. A highlight of the day was rock climbing, where students built confidence and supported one another. The event provided a fun and meaningful opportunity to develop leadership skills and strengthen cultural understanding.  

Illuminate Challenge  

STATE FINALISTS! We are very excited to share that our Illuminate Team won Best 

Marketing Package and Overall Runners Up for the Illuminate Challenge.  18 High Schools attended the challenge from across Newcastle & Hunter Region, so competition was fierce. Our students, Memphis, Milla & Floss had to identify a local need, create a business solution, create budgets, create an effective marketing campaign and then present their solution to judges and schools and then create an information desk to present to the Community of families, staff and schools. It definitely put them outside of their comfort zone, but by Day three, they were confident and outstanding! This takes us to the State Illuminate Final to pitch our Local Solution Statewide.  

Dream Together - Camp 

Our 2025 Dream Together camp took 20 girls away to beautiful Worimi Country, we started our journey with a walk on Country, initially the intention was to walk the Tomaree Heads Summit walk, but due to the heat and snake sightings, we made last minute changes and walked from Shoal Bay to Little Beach Lighthouse and took in the exhilarating views of the Bay. 

Our two days of wholesome, culturally nurturing and cup filling experiences included joining a Tina Turner flash mob, a Dolphin cruise, exploring the beautiful Worimi water ways and back to our beautiful accommodation at the Koala Sanctuary. We went to Birubi Bistro for dinner where and then had games back at our accommodation. Upon arrival, each girl was presented with a gift pack that was made up of amazing gifts from our wider community – we will share the AMAZING businesses and organisations that responded to our call and provided some wonderful gifts. 

Thursday morning, we arose to an early outdoor breakfast and a Koala Sanctuary tour. Port Stephens Koala Sanctuary is situated on 8 hectares of natural bushland  which  offered a unique opportunity to experience Australia’s native koalas close up and learn about the affects on our Koala populations with Bushfires and Land developments. We walked the Sky walk which allowed us a close experience with the Koalas. Students will learn about the life of koalas, what makes them so unique to Australia and the important work that is undertaken at Port Stephens Koala Hospital all whilst being guided by one of our local experts. 

We headed to the Crest Restaurant for a beautiful lunch over the beach and then went into a mini Forum with Kumarah Kelly (CEO, Awabakal Land Council), Chloe Smith, Community Engagement - Awbaakal Land Council) and Kahila Saunders (Aboriginal Language and Communities, NSW DET) to talk to the girls about working in and for community, empowerment and providing consideration to community when organising events – this aligned with our 2026 Empowering Young Womens Forum that we will be launching and inviting other schools to attend. 

Our camp was certainly a cup filling, embracing and empowering two days and we cannot wait to plan for the 2026 events. At the conclusion of the Day we presented our guest speakers with gifts and Certificates and announced our two  2025 Dream Together Award winners ....