The school is on a large site, with the Primary being at the front and is connected to the Secondary by a long covered path. The Primary buildings are a series of demountables, there is a special education unit, library and commercial kitchen (that pumps out breakfast, morning tea or "cuppa" as it's known here, and lunch, for all of the students and over 100 staff per day) in the middle of the school. The Secondary school comprises of three buildings, the main one hosting the staffroom and main classrooms, another building (Science) has classrooms, and the last one is used primarily for the "Ranger Cadet" program.
The site is elevated and slopes down from Primary, so there is always a breeze and quite a lovely outlook into the bush.
The day starts for the students with our local Indigenous Leader ringing the bell. Old school hand held bell. Love it. The kids come through the main building and move out to the verandah out the back for breakfast. They have cereal most days, or bacon and eggs on special occasions (when they are trying to get student numbers up). The kids refer to the cereal in such an interesting way. "Black cornflakes" are coco-pops. "Ironman" is Nutrigrain.
After breakfast the kids assemble in the main corridor area, we count numbers, say prayer and send them off for their 2 hour block of literacy.
At the moment we have the Year 6s down in the secondary area as their building is condemned due to termites. We also have a couple of vertical classes with years 7,8,9, and some classes are divided into girls and boys. I am only just beginning to understand some of the intricacies of culture, but I do know that there are girls and boys who are not allowed to associate, or communicate, due to family connections. It's very complex and I will probably never completely understand it!!
After the first lesson, the kids have "cuppa" together, then go outside for a play. They have another lesson and then lunch together, and elective classes in the afternoon, or culture lessons on a Thursday (traditional music, art, dance, ceremony etc.)
It's really hard to get to know kids in any setting, but particularly in this one when you have no idea of their language, relationships, experiences. So you start with "hello, what's your name?" which has varying degrees of success depending on their fluency of English and confidence. Then you always meet the ratbags. The ubiquitous kids who are ratbags no matter the postcode. These ones are real cheeky. But funny and you can't help but get drawn into their character.
I met a group of Year 6 girls over lunch. They gave me the once over. My hair was undone and redone and redone and redone. Apparently I need to work on my styles. But it smells nice, one kid was running it beneath his nose like he was some hair connoisseur. I was given the interrogation: what's your name, where's your mob from, what's the totem, where do your parents live, where are your kids, is Matt your boyfriend, why is he your husband, can we wear your jewellery, what music do you like? This is all happening while I have three girls all vying to hold my hands, one kid checking my hair for nits (zero but plenty of grey hair), another 2 kids looking in my ears, another kid checking out my freckles and another checking my bra (haven't gone local style just yet). It wasn't confronting, just different. The kids were just so genuine and genuinely interested. Makes a nice change as a teacher to encounter that.
So now whenever I pass any of the kids I have met so far, they show that affection. It's more than a high five, it's a high five hand holding hug.
And it made my day.
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