From left to right: Teacher Misha Fisher, Zach Bond, Jason Miller, Craig Aubrey, Ashlee Alberts, Sammy-Jo Barrett and William Collins (kneeling) from the Annexe in Murgon, QLD.
TURNING THE TABLES
WORDS Lee Beasley and Madonna Botting
Each day in the small town of Murgon, three hours from Brisbane, an unpretentious cottage and large, colourfully-painted shed are the setting for miracles.
A dozen or so teenagers who have dropped out of formal schooling–some as young as nine years old–are finding their way back to meaningful education through a program known as the Annexe. Each student helps to design their own curriculum, so it is tailored to meet their particular needs and interests.
Misha Fisher, an indigenous teacher, speaks earnestly to one of the participants who is reluctant to be there. The difficulties of engaging the students are very real–their participation cannot be taken for granted; the challenges they face are great.
Craig, Zach,William, Eddie, Sammy-Jo and Ashlee gather in the small lounge of the cottage. They decide their program for the day in consultation with the Annexe’s Coordinator, Paul Wilson from Edmund Rice Family and Education Queensland, and indigenous workers from their home community of Cherbourg. They speak excitedly about interests as diverse as art and agriculture, fashion design and beauty salon work experience, dance and office administration. They gleefully anticipate the end-of-year adventure camp, a canoeing trip at Noosa, for which they will take responsibility for planning.
There is an air of enthusiam and pride as the students talk about their most recent successes. The Annexe program was one of 12 finalists in Education Queensland’s 2003 Showcase Awards for Excellence. The Awards presentation gave William the opportunity to represent the program in public, speaking in front of the judges and government ministers at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
Another positive influence for the students is art. Entering and being successful in competitions, seeing their work in a gallery or on the local community medical van, and teaching art to primary school students are all experiences which contribute to the students’ self confidence and faith in their own skills and competence.
Collectively the group exudes a great sense of strength and pride–young indigenous people with a love of their own culture and a commitment to participating both in their own community and in the wider world of training and work.
None of these young people was able to stick with education in a conventional classroom. What works for them now is taking responsibility for their own learning in a curriculum that has personal meaning for them. Here, their varying dreams are taken seriously and worked towards. This animates the students to believe in themselves and their abilty to achieve, and to participate in the workforce.
The Annexe program is a joint initiative of the Christian Brothers and the Murgon State High School with other partnerships. Without access to this alternative education many young people quickly slide into drug use and crime, becoming involved in the juvenile justice system at an early age. From there it is all too common for a pattern of offending to be established, and can become difficult to turn lives around.
Samuel, Alexander, Bessie, Gloria, Livingston and Zara–the group of younger students–gather in the yellow YACCA (Youth and Community Combined Action) shed around the corner from the house. The plan for the afternoon includes a trip to a nearby waterhole with Christian Brother Marty Sanderson and Uncle Lol (Laurence) Bond, and volunteer Kellie Stemp. The trip is punctuated with cheerful ribbing, but disrespectful language is not tolerated. The adults gently encourage participation, reminding the young people about the foundations of their work together–safe, legal, respectful participation, a mantra they evidently know well.
The minibus that takes the students from Cherbourg to Murgon provides an ideal opportunity to form links with the families and neighbours of the students, and to keep up with their lives at home. This social support in addition to the purely eduction-based input forms an important bridge with the community. The result is a deep engagement with the young people, their families and the community.
A Year 10 work experience student from Berne Education Centre.
The Berne Education Centre in Lewisham, Sydney, is a world away from Cherbourg community, but it is the site for a similar school of miracles. Just as the Christian Brothers provide much of the funding for the Annexe program, the Marist Brothers also provide substantial funds to the Berne Education Centre. The presence of these religious orders in these two different education programs have the same, very important result: a high staff to student ratio.
‘If you are going to run a special school then you have to have special features. And one of the most special features is the pupil/teacher ratio’, says Berne Education Centre Principal Br Michael Flanagan.
Berne Education Centre has 42 students, ten full-time teachers as well as a wealth of support staff–part-time teachers, counsellors and a psychologist. The staff especially concentrate on socialisation and personal development. The Centre operates in small classes, the students receive a lot of attention and their education is structured across the standard curriculum as well as incorporating special subjects.
‘Even the staff are "special". They really want to work in this type of educational setting. It’s not just a job’, Br Michael explains.
‘In the first year, we had a boy who even we couldn’t educate. His mother begged us not to kick him out so the staff had to set up a flexible arrangement with him. He was very bright but he had to do a lot of his work by himself and we had to keep him away from the other kids in the class because he was just too disruptive. He actually calmed right down by the end of the year and is just about to complete a full motor mechanic’s apprenticeship.’
For many students the changes in behaviour flow on to their home lives as well. There is less tension and trouble because the students are happier at school. For the first time in their lives they’re getting good reports.
‘I think it is important to stress that the number of such special facilities available for them is not great. In the Catholic system in Sydney we are the only ones who take the students through to their Year 10 school certificate’, Br Michael says.
‘These are high-needs kids who come from all over the greater metropolitan area of Sydney. The number of kids trying to get in always exceeds the number of places available.’
Br Michael sees the Centre as an effective and vital life line for those who have nowhere else to go. The students have either behavioural or emotional disorders, or both, and don’t fit into the mainstream school system. Their personal battles with depression, drug abuse and significant family problems typically manifest as anti-social behaviour.
‘We are usually the last hope for the parents and kids’, Br Michael says. ‘We put up with a lot more than a normal school–but there are lines in the sand, and the students know what they are.’
The Centre caters for students in years 7-10. The emphasis for years 7 and 8 is to work towards reintegration into the mainstream schools. For years 9 and 10, the program is aimed at reaching the goal of a NSW School Certificate.
‘When we see the graduating class at the end of each year, it gives us a tremendous feeling of how worthwhile the whole effort has been to get these kids to this point. Research tells us if they do reach that first education qualification, the Year 10 NSW School Certificate, they have a much better chance of succeeding in the workplace and putting together the rest of their lives’, Br Michael says.
Berne and the Annexe are great examples of the new expressions of charism being pioneered by religious orders as they challenge and partner mainstream education to care for young people at the margins.
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