Walawaani!

This week, I watched the inspirational story of Leila Smith, Deputy CEO of the Aurora Education Foundation.

Click here to view the story of Leila Smith

Of particular note was her description of how the foundation strives to guide, inspire and inform students. This resonated strongly as goals that the team in Gooroon also strive for; to guide and support students so that they can achieve their best, to inspire students to be ambitious and to play a role in informing our whole community of the richness of Aboriginal culture and it’s relevance to our daily lives.

As a measure of our progress toward those goals, next week we will be celebrating the graduation of ten Year 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. All of these students have shown great resilience and strength of character in this particularly difficult year. All ten students have chosen further education and/or career pathways including early acceptance into, or applications for, university courses for 2021, apprenticeships or traineeships. We are all very proud of their achievements. The ceremony will be live streamed to parents/family on Wednesday 16 September. (Link to be emailed.)

Earlier this term we bid farewell to Leland Foster. Leland has been working with Gooroon as Aboriginal Education Assistant for the last 2 years and has made a wonderful contribution to the unit. Students and staff were sad to see him go but we all wish Leland well in his new position. Having worked with him in Gooroon, I know that he will be very successful.

The Homework Centre continues each Wednesday, with measures in place to meet COVID safe guidelines. This will continue each term from Week 2 - 9  from 3.00 to 4.30 pm in Gooroon. This is a great opportunity for students to complete assignments or homework with the assistance of teachers who voluntarily attend.

Due to the current COVID directives, our didgeridoo program has had to be suspended. As an alternative, students have begun to work on the creation of small message sticks. Appropriate wood has been gathered and is now being prepared for painting. Our dance groups have been able to continue with Covid safe measures in place.

This year, our NAIDOC assembly will be live streamed in Term 4 on Friday 6 November. NAIDOC Week officially runs from Sunday 8 to Sunday 15 November. The theme this year is ‘Always Was, Always WIll Be’, recognising that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this land for at least 65,000 years. https://www.naidoc.org.au/  Keep an eye out for the link, which will be published nearer to the date. Preparations are well underway for what will be a different, but engaging, presentation.

On behalf of all the team in Gooroon,

Mr David Muller

Gooroon Coordinator