To promote day one of the fourth school term our Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS) and Community Development Programme (CDP) teams held a community BBQ in all communities where we have offices. The aim of this activity is to engage the whole community to discuss the importance of every child attending school every day.
Getting the whole community on board
The RSAS and CDP teams worked closely together over the days beforehand to plan and prepare the community BBQ. We’ve found historically ‘back to school community BBQ’s’ are a successful way to inform the whole community about the date that school returns. We also know how important it is to get all community members involved and supportive of sending all children to school. We invited all community members and service providers to come along to discuss school attendance and to engage with families. Our staff invited all providers either by email or personally, from each of our APY Lands communities to attend.
Teaming up with other providers
Our teams were very pleased with the turn out and the support at each community gathering. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the providers who attended and supported each event.
In Ernabella Liz from Star Light attended these festivities and in Mimili there were various providers. It is important for providers to attend so that we can work together to promote the importance of school. It also allows the opportunity for Skill Hire staff to catch up with other providers for networking and collaboration. Liz assisted us with preparations at the BBQ and helped with the supervision of activities. This engagement between providers is an example of how we work together to support the community and to engage the community in meaningful events.
A day filled with games, music and food
We’d like to highlight the Ernabella Community where the day was an outstanding success!
Their day was filled with games, music, food and messages over the mega phone from the CDP/RSAS staff promoting the importance of school.
The day which was filled with children engaging in activities such as:
- Softball
- T-Ball
- Skipping
- Footy
Our Ernabella Skill Hire team gave out t-shirts to the children, which had been painted with Aboriginal designs by our CDP participants as part of their WfD activities.
Children appreciated being acknowledged
Five children were selected for their assistance with cleaning up after the activities finished and were given a school bag filled with stationery. The children enjoyed receiving the stationery as they knew how handy it would be to have basic essentials for school and how fun it would be to do drawing at home. They loved being acknowledged and appreciated that their assistance on the day was noticed and they were rewarded for their good behaviour.
Deemed a fun day
You know you’re on the right track when the day ends with lots of laughter and families go home with a smile on their face. The quote of the day was ‘we had fun!’ from the children who attended. We will continue to plan this event for each term the day before school starts.
