More than a Word, Reconciliation Takes Action

Term 2 at Yiramalay/Wesley Studio school was huge! It was a long term and it turns out we needed every minute to get through everything we had set our sights on. Reconciliation Week was celebrated at our school with community involvement, the introduction of our student leadership team, including 2021 School Captains. The theme, More than a Word, Reconciliation Takes Action, is not a difficult concept for those associated with this great school. It’s our day to day, and this was again shown in the leadership shown by staff and students through Reconciliation Week filled with sharing stories, experiences, cultural practices and understandings with our induction groups. 

The return of Inductions from Melbourne to Yiramalay was a cause for celebration as our two-way learning philosophy had life breathed back into it. Each individual from Melbourne brings their own ideas and life experiences to this journey and each individual leaves, having had a rare opportunity to live and learn in the studio school context. The partnership is alive in these moments and I hope all our Induction students have taken with them a readiness to act and play their part in truth telling and making reconciliation, More than a Word. 

Community engagement was a key feature of Term 2 with visits from two schools in our neighbourhood. It was such a positive and rewarding experience to have students, staff and family from Yakanarra Community School and Purnululu Aboriginal Independent Community School visit us this term. Our students and staff facilitated school tours, Welcome to Country, On Country Learning and much more. The staff, students and families who visited from these schools reported having a great time. The Yiramalay staff and I are extremely proud of our students for the way they conducted themselves as teachers, leaders and ambassadors for this outstanding school. The secret is out, as one of the visiting staff remarked to me, and we plan to continue our relationships with these communities and develop further relationships in and around the Kimberley. 

It was fitting that such an action-packed term finished with an action-packed week. The staff and students who attended the Kimberley Cup are once again doing themselves and the school proud. There were so many excellent individual and team efforts as well as displays of fairness, teamwork, perseverance and determination. Congratulations to Year 10 student Devan Wunungmurra who won Most Valuable Player for the mixed basketball competition, and the boys football team and the mixed basketball team on their Grand Final wins. A huge thank you to the coaches and staff on organising and facilitating such a fun and action-packed week for the students.

Matt Watson, Principal