Wugularr School – 110km southeast of Katherine in the extremely remote community of Beswick – is a long way from the coast. For a small group of Year 5 and 6 students visiting the Mornington Peninsula, it was their first time experiencing the beach.
Andrea Khoza, head of Woodleigh’s Penbank campus, said: “We visited some of the iconic places on the Peninsula and in Melbourne, including Mothers Beach, Enchanted Adventure, Federation Square, the NGV, St Paul’s Cathedral and more. But most of all, the children wanted time to play and get to know each other. Wugubank began 16 years ago when a teacher from Penbank took leave to go and teach at Wugularr School. He was surprised that the children didn’t have specialist classes, so Penbank started sending up some teachers to help run programs within the school and assist in setting up learning environments, such as a library.
“It has developed so much. It now involves a two-way learning exchange each year with the Year 5 and 6s from Wugularr and the Year 6s from Penbank. However, when the Wugularr students come down and the Penbank students go up, our whole school communities are involved in hosting, playing, learning and sharing. It’s wonderful to experience the playful and caring connections the children make when visiting one another’s Country. It is real action towards reconciliation.”
Beginning with a trip to the MCG to watch the AFL Dreamtime match, the students and their accompanying teachers slept at Penbank for a couple of nights before the students headed to their host families for the week. Their Year 6 student hosts took great pride in including them in activities such as footy training, dancing rehearsals and family dinners.
“During the school day, the children had a chance to learn and play together through music, art, drama, cooking, dance and sport. Elders headed into classrooms from Early Learning through to Year 6, sharing stories, language and knowledge.”
This year, Woodleigh and Wugularr School are taking part in the City-Country Partnerships Program with the Yadha Muru Foundation, providing increased opportunities for immersion in literacy and numeracy to support pathways to secondary school. Six Wugularr students continued their stay for another fortnight to benefit from the program, along with their school’s teaching assistants, who were able to develop their skills with Woodleigh’s teachers and support staff.
Woodleigh’s campuses embed Indigenous perspectives in their teaching and learning frameworks from Early Childhood, so the partnership is an extension of learning and experiences the students have already had, beginning with the local Bunurong/Boon Wurrung community. Its life-changing impact on participants is clear: “One of our past students taught up at Wugularr School for four years and returned to teach at Penbank as a Year 6 teacher,” Andrea said. “We have adults from Beswick who visited us when they were in Year 5 and 6 at Wugularr School who have returned to support the Yadha Muru program.”
Excitement is mounting as the Woodleigh students plan their visit to Beswick next month to rejoin their Wugularr friends.
