Cherbourg and Wondai School Visits - 20/04/10

Brooke Tully writes:

A charter flight to regional Queensland, a journey through indigenous artwork, a superb nutritious meal, meeting some inspirational adults and personality-plus students…as my colleague Charby Ibrahim later commented: ‘what a perfect day in the office.’

Yesterday, Charby and I joined Poppy Masselos from the Courier Mail to visit two of last year’s Queensland Local Impact award winners, Cherbourg State School and Wondai State School P-9. The day was part of a Schools First commitment to visit each of last year’s 88 award winners, see how their school-community partnership was progressing, and discuss additional ways in which the partnerships could be further supported. Poppy had generously agreed to give us a day of her time to come along and see first-hand how some of her state’s most impressive school-community partnerships look. To say all three of us were blown away is an understatement.

We touched down on the regional airstrip to be collected by the local taxi service, and were quickly whisked to Cherbourg State School.

“Strong and Smart” was the art installation that formed part of the school’s façade: a beautiful hint of the remarkable artwork within the rest of the grounds.

Cherbourg’s partnership with The Smith Family was born from a need to implement an early literacy program among the predominantly indigenous students. Furthermore, teachers were aware of a lack of indigenous books and literary references - reading ‘Where’s Spot?’ and the like was not the sort of material with which these youngsters could immediately identify. The result is a truly outstanding partnership that involves and embraces all year levels, instils within students a keen understanding and pride in their culture and their people, and greatly improves literacy and other skills. In a nutshell; students have worked with members of the broader community to compose and create a series of striking reading books, inspired by indigenous stories.

The Cherbourg and Smith Family welcoming group had prepared a wonderful experience for us, literally taking us through the various year levels and processes of the book’s production. We started with a class responsible for brainstorming story ideas and we watched as the group collectively worked on their latest story telling adventure, ‘Where is Nana?'. We then visited another class responsible for interpreting these storylines by capturing photographic images of each scene acted out. Sliding down the age scale, we then visited the littlies responsible for painting the glorious borders that are used in the final creative page layout.

At each stage we witnessed the integral involvement of elders from the community, either assisting in painting ideas, in brainstorming copy and even acting out key storyline scenes (poor Aunty found herself under the table for one of the scenes!).

We stopped for refreshments in the library and were presented with the complete suite of books produced thus far. It was wonderful for us to learn that last year’s Schools First award was responsible for sustaining one new book, already fully published, and another ('Where is Nana?') on the way.

We were in awe at just how comprehensive a partnership had developed. From books to mini movies, the students had worked with The Smith Family and various community elders to create a literacy tool that had relevance not only within Cherbourg, but for schools Australia-wide. Equally important, the students had created a legacy that forever captured their interpretation of the local indigenous culture.

Through our visit it became clear that the Ration Shed was an important part of the town’s history (indeed it features in one of the student’s books). The only Cherbourg building left standing from a dark period in Australian history, the Ration Shed has become a museum and interactive learning experience. Again, we were touched at how the community had turned a negative into a positive of sorts, blending historic, often haunting photographic images and clips with the vibrancy, joy and innocence of contemporary indigenous children’s artwork. An incredibly empowering and moving local landmark.

We could have stayed for so much longer, but our afternoon was dedicated to Wondai State School P-9 and their partnership with the Burnett Inland Economic Development Organisation (BIEDO).

An entirely different partnership to that of Cherbourg, Wondai was motivated to implement sustainable living practices into school life which, of course, could then be applied to everyday life back at home. What better way to literally get a taste for this partnership than with a magnificent feast!

Students and teachers had spent the morning preparing an astounding spread of nutritious, tasty salads, roast vegetables, meats, cheese platters and even some sweet treats. As students dished up plates of mouth watering meals, and served refreshing fruit punch, we mingled with students, elders, teachers, BIEDO representatives, the Mayor and Katrina Scott, a journalist from the local South Burnett Times.

We learned how this partnership was responsible for students not only designing and creating their own community gardens, but understanding the harvest process, how to cook with fresh ingredients, and to better appreciate the nutritional value of ingredients used.

We wandered through these wonderful gardens – fresh herbs, flowering zucchinis, rampantly growing tomatoes, ripe watermelons…what a culinary inspiration right here on school grounds!

We met with the Deadly Group, a cluster of older indigenous male students who worked closely with Uncle Noel to prepare the grounds for gardening. We listened as the students explained how their groundwork then paved the way for other classes to plant seeds and maintain the produce; impressive and inclusive team work and responsibility across all ages. We also heard of the work some students had undertaken back at home in an effort to implement their sustainable living skills within the family - although apparently squash doesn’t seem to be a big winner no matter where it’s grown (some things never change!). We were also shown the school’s impressive Rabbit Proof Fence, built with representatives from Silver Lining, a not for profit organisation that works to establish vocational experience for indigenous people.

From there we were introduced to younger students who were responsible for building and maintaining a communal flower garden as well as looking after the chicken coup. We watched as two boys rushed into the coup, eager to give the chickens a hug and kiss and introduce their feathered friends to us city visitors. We were then taken to what was essentially a construction site, the terrific new school kitchen.

Although just a framework right now, the kitchen will ultimately become the final stage of this sustainable living partnership - a place in which students will be able to work within a terrific facility, using brand new kitchen equipment to create more and more of these delicious meals.

The partnership had decided to invest 100% of its $50,000 Schools First award into the development of this kitchen, however, more funds will be needed to realise the development in full. A major fundraiser is therefore being planned in June, with the students and school-community partnership preparing to cater en masse to the community and visitors. Apparently our group was the first trial guinea pig and if our meal was any indication, then the fundraiser should be a huge hit!

Again, it’s fair to say we were disappointed to leave Wondai and such warm hospitality, but we were looking forward to sharing our stories with the greater Schools First team. Our day was a terrific insight into the power of school-community partnerships that are genuinely tailored to students’ specific needs.

As contrasting as each partnership was, the similarities were nonetheless obvious - born from a passion for and pride in community, and a commitment to student wellbeing, these schools were making a dynamic and indelible impact primarily on their students, as well as anyone lucky enough to come in contact with their initiative.

A sincere thank you to both Cherbourg, Wondai and their respective partners for welcoming us so warmly and for giving us such a wonderful, long-lasting impression.