Rural and Remote Education - NSW
Rural
and Remote Education - NSW
Brewarrina Secondary Students
meeting, 2 March 1999 - notes
The students attending
were all Aboriginal students from Years 10 and 11. The 3 Year 12 students
at Brewarrina did not attend. The group developed a list of issues they
wished to address. Participating students were then split into pairs and
allocated one or two of these issues. They were asked to prepare three
sub-topics.
- What is the current
situation on that issue?
- How does that
affect you and your classmates?
- How can the situation
be improved?
The students addressed
- sporting facilities
and opportunities
- travel to competitions
and otherwise
- parent involvement
in the school
- staff turnover
- staff quality
- school budget
decisions
- library
- subject choice
- exchange programs
- activities both
at and after school.
Sporting facilities
and opportunities
"All we have is an
open basketball court and a netball court which is a personal hazard.
The grass is growing through the court and there's glass over the court
and both courts are cracked. The fences are partly ripped open. If it's
raining, we miss out on sport. If it has rained, people can slip over."
"Also we have to go out in the heat and we've got no energy to play sports."
"We, as students,
feel that we have to upgrade both our basketball and our netball courts
such as with a multi-purpose centre. That would be a big hall where you
could have concerts, school sporting activities, plays, school discos,
anything."
"How to solve it?
We would like community involvement for fund raising and also student
and teachers fund-raising in the school. We would like to do a survey
of how many people throughout the school and town are in favour of a new
multi-purpose centre. The town is sick of having meetings with the Shire
here and you still don't get anything out of it. They're very tight. Although
they were good during the floods and afterwards. But something major has
to happen before they get up and do anything."
"In the school and
town we have no sport competitions whatsoever. We do have a swimming carnival
and an athletics carnival. Again they're losing numbers because everyone
is sick of doing the same old sports every single year. There's nothing
new to do. We need a wider range of sports. The only sports competitions
in town are rugby union and netball. But people lose interest and it's
lacking in numbers. They haven't got the teams. Rugby union only has the
one season and then, when that's over, what have you got after that? There's
tennis courts but there's no tennis. The courts are just the same as the
school courts. The Shire is responsible for those courts. There's golf
in town but it's not part of school sports."
"This problem is
a major factor as to why young people are breaking in [to homes and business].
To achieve it we feel we need the community and school involvement to
enter into competitions and we need a sports coordinator to organise more
sporting activities. Now it depends on the sports coordinator at the school
whether he enters us - some of them are a bit lazy. We've got friends
in Nyngan and Bourke and they tell us they're going here and there for
sports. But we're not going because we're not being entered."
Travel to competitions
and otherwise
"I think we need
one big coach because when we travel away to other schools we've got two
buses - one is a little Hiace with only about 25 seats on it and there
could be at least 30 kids going away - so there's 25 on one bus and 5
on the other. We need one coach that's big enough for all of us to go
on."
"Sometimes people
miss out. When Nyngan kids travel away they all go in the one bus but
we have to go in two or three. It looks untidy and one turns up early
and another one turns up late."
"We haven't got a
clue how to get one. How much would it cost for one?"
Parent involvement
"We want them to
get more involved. They're not really there. There's Parent and Teachers
night but most parents don't even show up there."
Students noted that
Aboriginal parents do not get involved in the high school even though,
on the whole, the parents' school experiences had been positive. The reason
was felt to believe that the staff at the school do not make the effort
to involve themselves with the parents. A suggestion to increase parent
involvement was for the school to hold a Fun Day. But "really there's
only a few interested parents, anyway".
"The [school] newsletters
don't get home to the Mum."
Staff turnover
"Mostly the staff
- to us - don't seem interested. Mostly they only stay for one year and
then they're gone. They're supposed to stay for three years."
Staff quality
"They haven't got
the experience to teach what we've got to learn."
"They have to cover
two subjects and they're only first year out teachers."
School budget decisions
The school spent
a large amount on computers which the students felt was excessive considering
the need for a bus. "There's nearly more computers in the school than
students. And they don't even give us access to go and use the computers
anyway. They haven't let anyone use them this year. We go up to TAFE to
do computer studies."
Internet is only
available on two computers in the school. One is secured with a password.
Students feel the need for training in internet research techniques. "I
used it two years ago when the teachers used to get us involved in it
a lot. This year and last year they haven't got us involved in it at all."
Library
"The variety is not
what you'd call a large range at all and we need to update our books.
Most of the books we've got don't cover our subjects at all. The only
ones we use are Encyclopedias. I have to use the town library, but I'm
the only one in our school with a library card. And the books there are
not what you'd call a large range either and they're real old. If I need
something I surf the Net for it."
"We can prove that
they're old, too, because they've all got our Mother and that's name in
them."
Subject choice
"Most kids won't
come to school because there's really nothing to learn."
"We have Aboriginal
Studies and we don't know anything about our culture. They don't get no
elders to come in and talk to us. All we do is watch silly little videos.
And some things that aren't even involved with our culture. No Aboriginal
Education worker participates in Aboriginal Studies. I think we need an
Aboriginal teacher in the school who can teach us about our culture."
"When we were in
Year 7 we had an Aboriginal teacher who used to take us out on this language
program. He used to tell us all these Aboriginal stories. That was every
week. That was good eh? We even made a video. We had a big book with photos
of us."
"We haven't really
got very much subjects. When I was on a TAFE course I picked Building
and Constructions. I really wanted to do it. But they put me in Office
Skills and I've got to put up with it. They didn't even give me a reason."
Another student comments it was "Probably because they were girls and
not boys."
"With netball and
football it's the same thing. They don't ask us what we want to play."
"They made us take
Science this year. We chose a computer class but they said, 'No. We want
you to do Science.' I think they're trying to get us some UAIs to get
into University. They kind of explained that to us."
Exchange programs
"We'd like to get
someone from overseas to come here and learn our language and stuff like
that. And we'd like to nominate one student to go over there and learn
to speak like they do. We could all chuck in and have more fund-raising."
There's nothing at
present. "We're lucky to go to Bourke. They don't give us a variety of
places to go."
Activities
"We need more community
activities for young and old to get involved. It could get people off
the streets and give people something to do. People in Brewarrina are
talented in a variety of sports. We've even got dancers. But the only
dancing put on is line dancing. There's not even a town disco."
Bourke's youth centre
was envied with its roller-skating, a weights room and a canteen. "There's
not many things at the Brewarrina youth centre. A lot of kids have to
wait their turn." It was suggested that the old bowling club could be
used for a youth centre.
"Nothing is open
on a Sunday which is the most boring day: the youth centre and the video
shop are closed. That's when the breaking and entering happens. Only the
pool is open."
The students expressed
concern for young people engaging in petrol-sniffing. "It's been big here
- petrol - over the last couple of weeks." "It's young people: about 13,
14, even 12. There's some our age too. A range of 10-18 or something like
that." "They're only doing it because they haven't got money for marijuana.
That's why they're doing the breaking in." "There is most definitely a
drug problem - marijuana, cigarettes, but no heroin although there was
a couple of months back when two people came from Sydney (they were doing
it in the park where kids were and they left needles in the playground
where little kids were running around). Both white and Aboriginal people
have been bringing it in. Some people have been waiting to bash them for
it."
Last
updated 2 December 2001.
