National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Conference ‘Student and Teacher Engagement’ what makes the difference in improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students? Presenter Bios and Abstracts Principals Australia - Dare to Lead ‘Student and Teacher Engagement’ Conference 9.00am Welcome to Country ‐ Wurundjeri Elder 9.10am Conference Opening Comments: Geraldine Atkinson ‐ Victorian Aboriginal Educaon Associaon Inc. Geraldine Atkinson is a Bangerang/Wiradjuri woman who has devoted her career to expanding the possibilies available to Koorie people through educaon. For over 30 years Geraldine has been a significant presence in the Koorie and wider Victorian community, beginning as a Teacher’s Aide in 1976 to her current role as President of the Victorian Aboriginal Educaon Associaon Incorporated (VAEAI) since 1999. Geraldine’s role as a Teacher’s Aide was a first step towards extensive involvement in Koorie educaon across all sectors from early childhood to terary educaon. As a result of this posion, Geraldine became involved with VAEAI at the me of its incepon in 1976. Through VAEAI Geraldine was able to gain broad experience within Koorie Educaon, inially serving as the Adult Educaon and TAFE Specialist Representave. Geraldine is an innovator who played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Minimbah Adult Educaon Program, which provided Koorie people with an opportunity to take a new direcon through training. Geraldine was insistent that the program must be structured to provide pathways to employment, and it was successful in achieving this aim. The program has now been absorbed into the Goulburn/Ovens Instute of TAFE, of which Geraldine is a member of Council. Geraldine has also made a significant impact in the area of Early Childhood. The Lidje MACS child care centre near Shepparton was established in 1986 through a collaborave effort of which Geraldine was a leader. The centre was established out of the recognion that many Koorie children were disadvantaged as a result of their lack of aendance in early years' programs. It provides a range of services designed to give children the best start during their formave years, including long day care, occasional care, playgroups, vocaonal care, aer school care, day stay, emergency care as required and community educaon programs. As a recognised leader in Koorie educaon, Geraldine became President of VAEAI in 1999, and has been re‐ elected every year since. As President, Geraldine has been able to contribute her experse to key policies and strategies that have shaped Koorie educaon and have yielded significant improvement in outcomes. As President of VAEAI, Geraldine has also been instrumental in negoang and formalising the Wurreker strategy, launched in 2000 as a joint iniave of VAEAI and the then Office of Post Compulsory Educaon, Training and Employment (now the Office of Training and Terary Educaon). The equal partnership between the Koorie community and OTTE ensures that training delivery and support services value the aspiraons of individual Koorie students and enable Koorie communies to have a say in their training and employment future. In October 2001, former Premier Steve Bracks, with Geraldine Atkinson, launched the renewed partnership in educaon and training, Yalca. Yalca, meaning Yellow Box gum in the Yorta Yorta language, supports a birth‐ to‐death philosophy of educaon, placing the Koorie student at the centre of educaon policy and decision making, and acknowledges that local Koorie communies are best able to determine local educaon and training needs. In addion, Yalca acknowledges the need for, and provides the framework to develop and implement, collaborave iniaves and strategies across departments and agencies for the benefit of the Koorie community. Principals Australia - Dare to Lead ‘Student and Teacher Engagement’ Conference Geraldine also represents VAEAI on a number of Naonal and State Commiees while maintaining her involvement at the regional and local level. Currently Geraldine is a member of the following boards and commiees: • Chairperson – Lulla’s Children and family Centre • Deputy Chairperson – Goulburn Valley Aboriginal Educaon Consultave Group • President – Black Eagles Basketball Club • Chairperson‐ Cummeragunja Local Aboriginal Land Council • Deputy Chair – Secretariat of Naonal Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Co‐Chairperson – Wannik Project Board • Member – Premier’s Aboriginal Advisory Council • Member – Indigenous Higher Educaon Advisory Council • Director – Aborigines Advancement League In addion, Geraldine is the naonal Indigenous Educaon Consultave Body (IECB) representave to the Ministerial Council for Educaon, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA). Geraldine represents IECBs on the MCEECDYA reference group on Indigenous educaon and has an important role to play in contribung her direct experience of what works in community combined with her extensive policy knowledge. Geraldine regards this ability to act as link between policy and community as her principal funcon. As a community leader Geraldine has worked hard to ensure that real progress is made for Koorie people. Geraldine has always regarded educaon as being the best instrument of progress. 9.30am Keynote – Brian Giles‐Browne Title: Listening to the Voices From the collected data of 425 Collegial School Snapshots this presentaon will share the Voices of nearly 3000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their teachers. Just what is it that students see as the qualies of “engagement”? What do teachers see as the qualies of “engagement” and the qualies of a good learner? What are the crical factors in ”successful” engagement and how do we measure this? How do school leaders “lead and manage” successful engagement in schools ? What role does the community have to play? What role do Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff play in supporng, developing and maintaining this engagement ? This keynote will be an interacve exploraon of the theme with data evidenced input from students and teachers. Brian is the Naonal Schools Coordinator for Dare to Lead, his role has allowed him to work in all states and territories and all geo locaons across the country. His work is centred around the development, implementaon and evaluaon of Dare to Lead resources, tools and workshop products. Brian has been working for Dare to Lead as a seconded NSW Primary Principal since 2005 to the start of this year when he moved across as a full me employee of Principals Australia. His Principalships included Moruya PS, Coonamble PS and Riverstone PS. Brian chaired the NSWPPA Aboriginal Educaon Reference Group, sat on the Director Generals Advisory Group for Aboriginal Educaon and was the recipient of the NSW PPA’s Excellence in Aboriginal Educaon Leadership award. He represented the PPA on the Review of Aboriginal Educaon in NSW. Principals Australia - Dare to Lead ‘Student and Teacher Engagement’ Conference 10.15am Concurrent Workshop 1 a) Rokeby Primary School, TAS ‐ Greg Phair and Tracey Johnston Rokeby Primary was one of the winning schools of the 2010 Dare to Lead Naonal Excellence in Leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Educaon Awards. Their journey to reach this award will be arculated in this presentaon. b) Cairns West State School, QLD ‐ Mike Hansen and Mahew Thompson Cairns West State School’s “Academic Success Guarantee” is a program that, in partnership with parents, begins to deliver the right to beer life chances. Aer its first year in 2009, there was a 700% increase in benchmark achievement in Year 1 and over the last two years across the school benchmark achievement rose from 32% of students to 53%. The Academic Success Guarantee is a signed agreement between parents and the school, which states that: ‘Cairns West State School is commied to ensuring students who aend 95% or more of the school year will meet or beat their year level benchmarks. In partnership with parents we are commied to doing whatever it takes at school to individually case manage those students who do not meet these year level benchmarks’. Michael Hansen Michael commenced teaching in 1990 at Cairns State High School. Between 1994 and August 2001 he was a teacher and Head of Department at Kowanyama State School. From 2001 – 2003 He fulfilled a variety of roles at Western Cape College in Weipa including Head of Community Engagement, Aendance and Retenon and Head of Napranum Campus – Western Cape College. In 2004 Michael was appointed to Doomadgee State School as Principal where he spent four years in that role. In 2006, Michael was appointed as Director Government Coordinaon – Doomadgee and successfully coordinated Government service delivery on behalf of the Government Champions and the Queensland Government, that lead to the Queensland Government signing a Local Indigenous Partnership Agreement with the Doomadgee community. In 2008 Michael was appointed as principal at Cairns West State School, a Low SES Partnership School, where the main focus has been engaging parents and community to develop real partnerships with the school, case management of all students and removing distracons from teachers, allowing them to focus on explicit teaching and learning. This has led to significant improvement in student performance. Mahew Thompson Mahew has been Deputy Principal at Cairns West State School from 2007 – present. He is currently compleng his Masters of Business Administraon and from 2008 – 2009 as part of his role has developed and led the implementaon of