Aboriginal Education

Origins of Nation basketball

During the school holiday 7 of our students were lucky enough to be chosen to go to PCYC’s Origin of Nations. Kaleb Roberts, Cyril Marr, Anthony Blair, Alexis Lockwood, Angela Simon, Tia-Nara Slater-Saunders and Nahri Slater-Saunders did an amazing job and represented our community with pride.

Northern Inland Academy of Sport

Last week several of our students involved in NIAS attended their annual awards night held down in Tamworth, where they were recognised for their effort and skill.

Congratulation to Tia-Nara Slater-Saunders who received Most Improved in Rugby League, Coaches Award in Hockey Ellesse Peltonen, Coaches Award in Basketball Alexis Lockwood and Nya Quinlan who not only received Most Improved in Netball, Nya was also named the 2024 Indigenous Athlete of the Year.

Congratulations girls, we are so proud!

NAIDOC Week Celebrations

In week 3 we celebrated NAIDOC Week, this year's theme ‘Keep the Fire Burning, Blak Loud and Proud’ was seen in each and every one of our students not only at school but in each and everything that they do.

We kick started our celebrations by inviting students from our local public schools up to do NAIDOC activities. Students from Sandon, Ben Venue, Armidale City and Newling participated in 3 different activities run by our staff and student volunteers. There was so much fun had by all as they played sports, did some beading, made handprint fires and participated in a student-led dance workshop. We finished up the day with a BBQ cooked by our staff and some senior students.

On Wednesday we invited students and community members to join us for our NAIDOC Assembly where we were joined by Dr Casey Sullivan who was named the 2024 Aboriginal Women of the year and has also founded the first Indigenous privately owned and managed GP practice in NSW. Casey truly is an amazing role model for our students to look up to and we were incredibly lucky to have her come to speak to our students about the power of resilience and believing in yourself. As she told her story our student got to see that your dreams in life are possible with hard work and determination.

We also got to celebrate all of our students and their achievements, 12 students got awards with Kya Doyle, Jessica Ferris, and Dallas Kelly receiving the Attendance Award, Jake Rowbotton, Alexis Lockwood and Copper Collins received Academic Excellence Award, Madi Froome-Young, Grace Weatherall-Allen and Morris Collins for Consistent Effort Award and finally Freddy Waters, Nya Quinlan and David Ahoy received the Blak Loud and Proud Award. A huge thank you to Dr Casey and all our parents, carers and community members who joined us for our assembly to celebrate all our deadly students.

Thursday our Support Unit and IEC students joined us in the morning for a variety of activities including arts and craft, sport and dance with our year 7 and year 8 being able to join in later in the day as well. We also invited everyone to join us for a free BBQ lunch at school to celebrate NAIDOC and a huge thank you to the staff from PCYC who came up to help us cook the BBQ, everyone really enjoyed it!

The week finished off with our team taking some of our students out to UNE for the day to reward them for all the hard work and effort that they put into their school life every single day without fail. We got to do a range of activities including rock climbing, volleyball and basketball. We then went up to the Oorala Centre where they put on lunch for us and got to do painting, sand art, scratch art and the Natural History Museum. The day was fantastic with plenty of laughter and fun, it was a great way to finish the week!

Our NAIDOC week celebrations would not have happened without all the effort and work that went into organising and running these events, so we would like to give a huge thank you to everyone involved!

NAIDOC Week Bead and Bracelet Making

As part of our NAIDOC Week celebrations, we held a fantastic bead and bracelet making workshop!

Our students came together to craft beautiful and meaningful pieces that reflect the rich heritage and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Highlights:

Creative Expression: Students enjoyed exploring traditional and modern designs, using a variety of beads and materials.

Cultural Connection: Each bead and bracelet carried its own story, connecting participants to the deep cultural significance of NAIDOC Week.

Community Spirit: It was wonderful to see people of all ages collaborating, sharing stories, and celebrating our diverse heritage.

A big thank you to everyone who participated and made this event a success.