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For the chimes they are a changin'

04 February 2015

Gunbalanya School Co-Principals Sue Trimble and Esther Djayhgurrnga ring the bell at the start the school term on Tuesday 13 January during a visit by Member for Arafura Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu and Federal Senator for the Northern Territory Nigel Scullion. PHOTOS AND STORY: MARK CODDINGTON Gunbalanya School Co-Principals Sue Trimble and Esther Djayhgurrnga ring the bell at the start the school term on Tuesday 13 January during a visit by Member for Arafura Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu and Federal Senator for the Northern Territory Nigel Scullion. PHOTOS AND STORY: MARK CODDINGTON

Students came flooding back to Gunbalanya School this term earlier than other schools as part of an initiative to help boost attendance rates. With East Alligator River on the rise, the students are effectively “locked in” at Gunbalanya, and school Co-Principal Sue Trimble says this means a positive start.

“We have a flexi-calendar, so we start early at the beginning of the Wet,” Ms Trimble said. “We do 22 weeks in the first semester because everyone is ‘locked in’ and we can have the most children here. Gunbalanya is the only school starting early, because it utilises the time when everyone wants to be in town.”

Also in town when the school bell rang on Tuesday 13 January was Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion. The Senator visited the school this time last year to kick off his Remote Schools Attendance Program. In 2015, he again joined the school bus and attendance officers in their travels and travails around the community picking up students.

“One of the great things about today, that is different from this day last year, is the vast amount of knowledge we collected about the issues, and around the issues, that prevent, or are barriers to, attendance,” Senator Scullion told The Wire.

“It’s all about valuing, and having respect for each other, and working two ways.” 

He said the early start to the school year was “a great community initiative”.

“Just doing the same thing, and saying everybody’s got to be a robot in this sort of system is just not going to work,” he said.

“For many years, sadly, in many communities, school has been an option for young people, and they haven’t been taking up that option in the numbers that we would like. Without an education, your choices in life are just so much narrower. It’s terrific to be here in Gunbalanya this morning to see so many kids attending school.”

It was not the same story a fortnight later at Papunya, 250km west of Alice Springs. On Wednesday 28 January, Senator Scullion went on a door-knocking exercise at residences in Papunya, but found very few students at home, which he put down to the fact that there was a funeral in Kintore.

He said it was important to take cultural influences into account when rolling out the attendance program.

“Whether you are living in a mining town out of Mt Isa, whether you are living in western Sydney, you’ve got to contextualise learning around your life, and that’s exactly what we need to do here,” Senator Scullion said.

“We are getting some of the elders to come in and actually give lessons in culture, which is an opportunity for the teachers to become a little more culturally fluent.”

Ms Trimble said the effectiveness of the program depended on the messages the school sent.

“Instead of saying ‘get to school’ it’s ‘school is open and you are welcome to come today’,” she said.

“It’s all about valuing, and having respect for each other, and working two ways.” 

Tamika Johnston and Regina Namarnyilk enjoying fruit and cereal for breakfast as part of the Remote Schools Attendance Program. Tamika Johnston and Regina Namarnyilk enjoying fruit and cereal for breakfast as part of the Remote Schools Attendance Program.