An Indigenous Good News Story

[Redneck]

Well done Dubbo



Indigenous students finish Year 12 in record numbers
By education reporter Natasha Robinson, Kathleen Ferguson and the National Reporting Team's Rebecca Armitage

Updated about 2 hours ago

A group of teenagers from the New South Wales central-west town of Dubbo has made history as the largest group of Aboriginal students ever to sit their Year 12 exams.


Sixty Indigenous students at Dubbo Senior Secondary College are sitting the HSC this year
In Dubbo, the number of Indigenous students completing Year 12 has doubled in a decade
Principal credits the school's achievements to culture of high expectations

The 60 teenagers attend Dubbo Senior Secondary College and many of them have had to overcome major social disadvantages.

The school is putting the success down to the commitment and hard work of the kids, as well as their innovative mentoring programs on campus.

Seventeen-year-old Rosa-May Williams-Karam is the school's vice-captain and has already gained a place at university to study law as part of a fast-track program.

"Getting my HSC is a really big achievement for me because not many people in my family have actually finished year 12," she said.

"There's no way I ever would have seen myself going to university — let alone law — but now I've really got my heart set on being a law student.

"Getting the place in uni was probably the proudest moment I've ever had.

"My mum is a single parent and she's just worked her whole life for me, really. So I'm really really thankful and grateful. I wouldn't be where I am without my mum."

Rosa's classmate Marty Jeffrey is a talented cricketer and has been offered a prestigious place to play with the University of NSW's cricket team next year.

He plans to also study exercise physiology at uni.

"I aim just to be a role model," Marty said.

"I'd like to be seen as a mature person who's just chasing a dream. I've always been inspired to be the best person I can be in life, and in cricket."
HSC student Marty Jeffrey sits in the cricket stands in Dubbo


In Dubbo, the number of Aboriginal students sitting the Higher School Certificate (HSC) has doubled during the past 10 years.

Local Indigenous leaders say the success of their young people — many of whom are the first in their families to finish high school — is transforming the town's future.

Allan Hall from Dubbo's Aboriginal Education Consultative Group said there has been a fundamental shift in parents' expectations of their children.

"A lot of our kids are going to uni instead of going to jail," Mr Hall said.

"Finishing Year 12 is now just an expectation. And not only from the school point of view, it's from the family as well. It's an expectation that they do that, and that was never the case before."

Dubbo Senior Secondary College principal Andrew Jones credits the school's achievements to a culture of high expectations.

"When we first started this journey, we were looking at attendance, making sure that kids were coming to school and getting to school," Mr Jones said.

"Then we realised that attendance is an indicator, it's not an outcome.

"We've moved from from deficit-thinking, where just getting kids to school was enough, to really working our way through a whole plan progression. So we're now looking at our kids not just doing tasks, but doing the best tasks, not just sitting in an exam, but doing the best in an exam."
Closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students:

In 2008, the proportion of Indigenous 20-24 year-olds who had achieved Year 12 was 45.4 per cent
In 2014-15, the number of Indigenous young people who finished Year 12 was 61.5
Over the same period, the rates for non-Indigenous attainment did not change significantly
The greatest increases in Indigenous Year 12 attainment occurred in outer regional areas and very remote areas

The school's last three school captains have been Indigenous students and several have been awarded dux of the school in recent years.

In 2015, the Clontarf Foundation, which mentors Indigenous boys at risk of school disengagement, joined the school.

Its staff run homework groups at lunchtime, sports programs and career advice.

The Aboriginal Girls Academy also operates on campus to support the students.

Seventeen-year-old Ngali Shaw is in Year 11 and plans on staying at school next year to finish his HSC before auditioning for the Bangarra Dance troupe.

"There have been times I felt like I wasn't going to get through school to be honest. The classes were really hard. And they still are a bit, but I'm catching up," he said.

"I'm going to feel really nervous [during HSC exams], it's going be heaps hard. But I think I can get through it.

"When I finish I'll feel proud to be Aboriginal, proud to be Australian."


http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-28/i ... sc/9085236

[cods]

Seventeen-year-old Rosa-May Williams-Karam is the school's vice-captain and has already gained a place at university to study law as part of a fast-track program.



thats good to hear..

not sure I approve of this comment though.....fast track TO LAW... seriously?...

it sounds like cheating to me....or lowering the pass mark for some...

I know we need to give them incentive.. but we also need to be realistic.....Uni its hard graft... do they have short cuts in Uni??..

their expectations could be shattered..


but it is good to hear the news from a place called Dubbo... where justy about anyone aboriginal had a bad a name..

so good on you kids..

[Redneck]

I think the numbers are more important!

I found it amazing!

[Black Orchid]

It's a good and positive thing and very pleasing. I don't think they need special fast tracking systems though. Wouldn't it be demoralising to know that you didn't have to do as well as others to achieve the same goal?

Not trying to take anything away from them though. It's a really great and positive thing.

[cods]

It's a good and positive thing and very pleasing. I don't think they need special fast tracking systems though. Wouldn't it be demoralising to know that you didn't have to do as well as others to achieve the same goal?

Not trying to take anything away from them though. It's a really great and positive thing.

I think we are treating these kids as less than....

and thats not what education is about is it??.. the other students in Uni will see they are getting special treatment...

in the short term it looks good in the long term it could do a lot of harm...

there was a time when they were PAID to attend school...I went to a place called Walgett a high aboriginal town and the white people resen ted that 100% because they were forced to send their kids away to boarding school for High School and had to pay for it.....

so as well meaning as things go... it can anger some folks...

[Redneck]

there was a time when they were PAID to attend school...I went to a place called Walgett a high aboriginal town and the white people resen ted that 100% because they were forced to send their kids away to boarding school for High School and had to pay for it.....

So what did the whites resent?

That there were abos in the town?

That the Abos were paid to send their kids to school? (Whether that is true or not?)

Why were they forced to send their kids away to boarding school?

That sound like a lot of racist crap, the only people who sent their kids away to boarding school that I know of coming from a small country town were well off farmers trying to give their kids a good education from a recognised quality private school.

Had SFA to do with how abos were being treated specially at the local school.

You are not related to that racist idiot Herb are you?

[762NATO]

It was a feel good lefty ABC bullshit story. Go out and have a look .

[Super Nova]

It was a feel good lefty ABC bullshit story. Go out and have a look .

I don't think so Nato.

The school is putting the success down to the commitment and hard work of the kids, as well as their innovative mentoring programs on campus.

I have seen what biased attitudes the whole of Country Australian institutions and society has to Abos. It is a good news story to see some climb out of the lot their parents and society had assigned/positioned for them.

It shows hard work with a brain can pay off for anyone, even Abos get a chance to have a 'fair go" and better themselves, as it should be.

[762NATO]

Society provides endless opportunities for them , they have a poor record when it comes to taking advantage of them

[Super Nova]

Society provides endless opportunities for them , they have a poor record when it comes to taking advantage of them

I agree the record is poor. They need more normal example/role models that give them hope, if you work hard, you can drag yourself out of poverty.