Phase One Workshops

Outcomes

Individual Participant Comments

All young people in the Northern Territory – and especially Indigenous young people in remote communities – have access to quality secondary education

Learning Precincts

Smaller precincts may work but it may be more difficult to share resources in larger precincts.

Cooperation component of Precincts is fine, however, administrative structure will be a nightmare.

Schools may already be at the Learning Precincts stage without recognising it.

Good points in report on ways schools can align and cooperate. This would still be achievable without a full restructure.

Can see an opportunity for this to add value to the current system.

Changes need to come from grassroots, not top-down.

Funding is important to make Precincts happen.

Flexibility is needed in Precincts.

Heads of Precincts (HOP) will take away responsibilities from schools.

Indigenous parents will feel that schools may lose their identities from Learning Precincts.

Will lose local autonomy if HOP only looks at bottom line.

Concept of sharing resources has a different meaning between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

Learning Precincts may work well in urban areas, but not in remote areas.

Concerned that Precincts have a cost saving benefit for the Government.

Self-managed schools enable communities to have control and maintain the school’s identity.

Formation of larger body would only serve to alienate the smaller bodies, in this case, the parents.

Incentives for teachers to come and stay

Remuneration is important but job satisfaction is more important.

First three months free accommodation.

Extra leave provision.

Need to ensure incentives are sufficient as there is a perception that other states offer better deals for remote teachers.

Job satisfaction – teachers want to feel that they are making a difference. Guaranteed Indigenous support for teachers.

Flexible hours for teachers. This would need the unions on side.

Orientation needs to better cover cross-cultural training.

Need to recognise Indigenous remote as secondary students, distinct from secondary-aged students.

Flexibility in the curriculum could be a reason why people stay.

Training and support for Indigenous teachers

System should allow for more recognition and flexibility for Indigenous staff. Cultural differences faced by Indigenous staff need to be appreciated by the system.

System is not flexible enough to allow Indigenous staff to be covered by other workers when they are called off for ‘business’.

Need increased incentives for Indigenous people to be in schools. Without the Indigenous support, very little can be achieved.

Need funding to enable schools to pay for local Indigenous support.

There are lots of opportunities for professional development for teachers because of small size of the NT.

All young people have quality teaching and learning that meets their learning needs at the various stages of their development

Stages of Schooling

System must be in tune to meet the needs of the students, not make the kids fit the system.

Teachers need to respond to the needs of students and parents.

Success of the student is dependent on where they go to school and what structures are there to support them when they get there.

Removing senior years would destroy our school.

Advantage of living in a small town like Alice Springs is that other schools can be easily accessed by bus – could be argued that would save some bus fares.

The preparation that students have for transition will make a difference as to whether they cope or not. Transition is important.

Distance Learning

Nothing but praise for the whole NTOEC system. 100% support over the three years it was used.

Town camp kids doing school-based apprenticeships – finding it very useful.

Doing a remarkable job with some very difficult kids.

Some courses are better than others – those that have been trialled for longer are better.

English literacy and numeracy are not that good and lack relevance to their lives.

Issue of relevance is the crux. NTOEC courses may suit the purpose for students to obtain their NT Certification of Education but would strongly question the relevance of the education being provided.

Wonder if the community understands what NTOEC should be doing vs. what it actually is doing.

There is no support for students with special needs in remote communities. There are just not enough resources to go around.

There are issues with remote kids going to town to access secondary education. Some are just too young.

All young people have access to support for their social and emotional needs when they need it

More young people stay on at school longer and more complete Year 12

Remote school principals cannot do all the jobs that are expected of them.

It would help if people in the community could assist with some of the roles that are generally expected of principals (e.g. running VET courses).

VET does not happen much out in the bush because of small numbers.

Need the ability to employ resources as needed. E.g. a strong community person to ensure kids are at school.

No compulsion to go to school when they are in the community as they do not recognise its importance.

All young people are well prepared for their future pathways when they leave school

Pathways

Lots of opportunities for jobs on communities but agencies are not looking at alternatives to enable locals to take on these roles (e.g. Power and Water Corporation)

Not many pathways on communities.

The Northern Territory community has confidence in the quality of its secondary education