Cooinda
A big hello from the team at Cooinda and an even bigger welcome to our new and current Cooinda students for 2023. This year we have one of our past students Judith Thompson, return to Henry Kendall to take up the role of Aboriginal Education Officer and she has begun working closely with our students. We are all so grateful to have her to assist our Cooinda kids and it is great to have her back in the classroom.
Judith Thompson and Lisa Selsby
In Term 1 we began our PLPs and currently in this term there is only a few more to do. It has been so rewarding to sit down with our students and their family members to plan for their individual education and cultural journeys at school. We would like to welcome our new Year 7 students to Cooinda roll call, and we look forward to them contributing to the story of Cooinda.
This year is our third year teaching the Year 7 Aboriginal Studies course and we have introduced all our Year 7 students to the Cooinda community room and bush garden.
In Term 1 we began our PLPs and currently in this term there is only a few more to do. It has been so rewarding to sit down with our students and their family members to plan for their individual education and cultural journeys at school. We would like to welcome our new Year 7 students to Cooinda Roll call, and we look forward to them contributing to the story of Cooinda.
This year is our third year teaching the Year 7 Aboriginal Studies course and we have introduced all our Year 7 students to the Cooinda community room and bush garden.
Term 2 begun with our Staff Development Day focusing on Aboriginal Education where we worked closely with faculties to plan for more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and perspectives within our classrooms. This is a very exciting initiative for the future of Aboriginal Education at Henry Kendall High School.
Our Cooinda Cultural Program for boys and girls has started and is coordinated by Judith Thompson and Luke Fabila. We recently had our ANZAC Day ceremony where the Australian Wars were acknowledged alongside the heroic story of Eddie Albert, an Indigenous soldier who fought in World War II.
We have also started working with The Skill Engineer group who are producing a Podcast with our Cooinda kids called Mob Pod. In the photos below you can see Bryce Luck from Year 7 and Charlie Willcox from Year 9 learning the skills of interviewing and how to use the recording equipment. They had so much fun doing this and became so comfortable with using the technology it was amazing to watch.
We would also like to announce that we are ready for orders for our Cooinda Polo shirt and congratulate Ari Dunn for her amazing design that is on the shirt. It tells of the Dreaming story of Country and all our kids are excited to be able to wear it on Sport Days and for PE.
Below is a photo of the design, front and back, as well as our teachers modelling the shirt, how good does it look? You can place your orders for the shirt via the web link below the photos.
https://shop.sportsclique.com.au/product/henry-kendall-student-indigenous-polo/
Our Aboriginal Education Team has now begun planning for Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Day and we look forward to implementing some whole school activities in the coming weeks and terms. A community BBQ is also being planned for the end of this term so we can all get together with our students, families, teachers and community agencies so that we continue to build better connections to our community.
Again we would like to remind all our parents and caregivers that we are here to help with anything you need to discuss about your child. Our Cooinda kids are a great bunch and it is a pleasure to see them everyday.
