Yeah for Yandeyarra!

Rain had fallen in Karratha and across the Pilbara for twenty-four hours by this morning. This put our trip to Yandeyarra Remote Community School at risk as the journey of 350 kilometres includes 50 kms in and 50 kms out of the community on a gravel track. We were preparing for the disappointment of having to cancel the visit as, with much more rain, the track would have become impassable. Luckily, most of the rain had been confined to Karratha and the rain lightened off early in the day. So the trip was a goer!

Bruce picked us up at 8.15am for another 6 hour round trip. The travel time again gave us plenty of chance to talk to him about the history of Yandeyarra and the challenges the community faces. Bruce and his wife, Lyn, were the Principal and teacher at Yandeyarra in the late 1970’s – early 80’s. Their first child was born during this time and spent her early years growing up in the community. Bruce and Lyn spent 4 years at Yandeyarra and obviously made a tremendous contribution to the community. Bruce related his various duties and experiences as the principal. Their first home in the community was 2 caravans and a tin shed. The power went off each night at 9pm. When they were expecting their first child, Bruce requested the Education Department build them a house, which they did. Bruce recounted his duties included lighting the flares on the bush landing strip if the Royal Flying Doctor Service needed to fly in at night and the harrowing task of informing a young mother that her ill toddler had passed away in hospital in Port Hedland. Clearly, Bruce and Lyn left a lasting legacy in the Yandeyarra community and the community has made an enduring impact on them. Bruce shows an obvious respect and affection for the community and its people. His explanations of various traditional cultural practices relating to skin groups, mourning, initiations and gender have been interesting and enlightening.

Yandeyarra was established in the 1940’s to enable aboriginal people to live a traditional life. The school acknowledges and respects the customs and beliefs of the community and seeks to accommodate these within its program and operation. For instance, in aboriginal culture children attend family funerals and events. These can often be some distance away and mean children are absent from school. Aboriginal lore and initiation ceremonies may mean large numbers of people move into or away from the community for periods of time to participate. The school accommodates these shifts in enrolment to ensure the children can continue their education.

Graham Boyd, current Yandeyarra principal, has been in the role for two years. Prior to this, the school operated under nine principals in two years. Not surprisingly, this led to inconsistencies and disrupted practices in the school and important community connections broke down. Relationships between the principal and the Chairperson on the community are central to the development of strong community partnerships. One result of this unstable period was that the community reduced in numbers. This has an impact on the range of services available to the community. The community shop became unviable and was closed. People no longer had ready access to daily essentials without travelling 150kms into Port Hedland. Most members of the community do not have independent transport and rely on others making the trip to give them a lift. This loss of service had a big influence in the community.

Since Graham’s appointment, a range of improvements has been put in place that benefits the children and community. The school is an attractive, well cared for facility. Graham and some of the community members who work in the school gardens have established open grassed areas for the children to play. No mean feat in an area with temperatures up to 45 degrees in the summer; no water except the locally built water system and the likelihood of flooding during the wet season. A number of mothers work in support roles in the school. Graham’s theory is that this spreads the available employment across a number of families and each of these mums then make sure their children attend school regularly. One barrier to including community members in the school workforce was the need to complete Working With Children Checks. This was a daunting task made more difficult by people’s lack of transport. Graham helped people to complete the necessary documentation and then drove them to town to lodge their applications.

Graham’s personal philosophy and vision underpins the great progress the school has made in the past two years. He believes that school should be a place you want to come to. He and his staff go out of their way to ensure that children would want to be at school. On his arrival at Yandeyarra, student attendance on Fridays was routinely much less than on other days of the week. The local wisdom was that this was because community members went into town and took the children with them. It quickly became clear that this was not the case but a habit had been established. Setting out to break the habit, Graham introduced special programming on Fridays including a BBQ lunch, fun activities and games and an ice cream at home time. Now, as many, if not more, children attend on Fridays than other days.

The Yandeyarra school provides breakfast, morning fruit and lunch for the children. The program is funded by BHP and Foodbank and organised by Education Assistants from the community. Today was “Pie Day” and we were there as the children had lunch and went out to play. We were quite amazed as the children ate lunch that one of the mums appeared. She was carrying a cloth bag knotted at the top. It was quickly established that the bag contained a black-headed python that the lady had found. The children were very interested and patted the outside of the bag. Ray asked if he could take a picture and politely declined the lady’s offer to remove the snake from the bag. This never happens at Glen Iris!

When visiting the classrooms the children were actively involved in the various tasks they had been set. Graham emphasised that the children had a high work ethic especially when supported if a difficulty arose. In the classroom of Years 5 and 6 students, the children were working on computers to complete “Mathletics” – not dissimilar to the Sherbourne and Glen Iris kids would be doing. They had just finished an on line pen pal session with children from Bentleigh West Primary School.

Today, the school received their 2010 NAPLAN results. The results indicated improved standards by the children. The staff were keen to gather trend data by which to measure student progress. The school has a well developed Literacy Plan outlining the goals and strategies. Like Onslow Primary School, children at Yandeyarra suffer similar hearing loss issues, which have long-term implications for the children’s learning potential. As the children move into a secondary school age bracket, efforts are made to encourage them and their families to move the students to Port Hedland to continue their education. What a big ask! Moving from a small, family based community to a rural city to live with extended family members. Some Yandeyarra ex-students have gained scholarships from BHP to attend private boarding schools in Perth and hold high educational aspirations.

Yandeyarra Remote Community School has clearly established partnerships with a range of other bodies. These include

- School Council made up of 12 people with each family group represented and an equal gender mix;

- Mugarinya Community Association that advises on community and cultural matters;

- Mining companies BHP, Fortescue Metal Group, Rio Tinto etc;

- Other outside agencies such as Pilbara TAFE, Child Australia, Youth Involvement Committee Health Department etc

Our visit to Yandeyarra was both a professional and personal growth experience. There was significant evidence of the poverty experienced by the people living in the community, whilst, at the same time, the children were energetic, positive and engaged. The commitment of Graham and his staff was an inspiration and their stoic intent to overcome obstacles humbling.