Woolum Bellum Koorie Open Door Education School was established in 1995 to specifically meet the educational needs of Koorie children in the Latrobe Valley. It currently has an enrolment of 65 students from prep through to year 12 and an on-site preschool for 3 and 4 year olds. The school aims to improve educational outcomes for Koorie students through provision of culturally appropriate curriculum, strong links with families and the community, positive and supporting relationships with students and the employment of community people in the school.

The school has been exploring and implementing a ‘Full Service School’ approach to it’s operation in the last two years. This has included the establishment of a joint reference group involving members of the Central Gippsland Aboriginal Health and Housing Cooperative in Morwell and staff and students from the school.

The reference group continues to meet each term at a variety of venues with a range of people preparing the agenda and organising the venue. Members of the reference group have changed according to opportunity and circumstance with core members remaining constant. Issues that relate to level of commitment and time were problems that were eventually overcome through straight talk and revisiting the main purpose of the project.

The reference group and coordinators organised a very successful cultural family and community day to promote the project’s aims and seek support for a combined Cultural ‘Talking Circle’. As a result of this a very important community organisation launch was held at the school. A special ceremony was held at the school for National Sorry Day, organised by Latrobe Shire, Central Gippsland Aboriginal Health and Housing Cooperative and Woolum Bellum School. This demonstrates the level of support and collaboration that is developing between the school and the community.

A resource file of services has been completed and presented to the reference group. The purpose of developing the file was threefold. The reference group now has a better understanding of the services available to families and the school. The agencies themselves are very keen to provide a service but appear to be at a loss at how to achieve it. It also demonstrates to the reference group that accessing services needs to be done carefully, by the appropriate people and with a need for cultural sharing and understanding. In the end it comes down to personal relationships, integrity and honesty.

We have endeavoured to develop joint policies and programmes to ensure the sustainability of the partnership. Our experience so far has been that practical examples and demonstrations of the partnership are more powerful in bringing about change and an agreed understanding than clever talk. This has led us to explore real ways of engaging people eg. Cultural day, community survey etc. In the longer term, joint policies will come out of our experience. People not policies make things happen.

The reference group spent considerable time deciding on the most appropriate way of seeking community input. It was important that the group identify the best way to engage community members and get a real sense of what they believe. This was done by one of the coordinators, a Koorie man not originally from the area, visiting homes with a well- known local. Questions were asked covering Health, Culture, Employment, Access to other Services, Sport, Housing, Family Programs, Legal Rights. Seventy responses were recorded across five towns in the Latrobe Valley.

The responses indicate that community members are very keen to see joint programmes between the school and the Co-op in the areas of job education, including driver education, Cultural strengthening involving Elders, family sport days, education about services and legal rights. Whilst Health Education did not feature as a key issue, the school has initiated a joint programme with the Co-op. implementing a healthy cooking and eating programme involving health staff from the coop and the Koorie Diabetes Association of Victoria and Vic Health.

A meeting of the reference group agreed that Culture be the first issue from the survey to be followed up. It was also agreed to hold a joint Culture Family/Community day at the school and involve as many community people as possible. This day was a great success and as has already been stated, led to two other very important community functions at the school. One of the intentions of the day was to establish a ‘talking circle’ to develop an on- going joint Cultural programme. Student/family/community field trips with a focus on engaging local community cultural advisers and tutors have occurred as a result of this discussion. Following consultation with the Reference Group, funding was sought from the Co-op and school to enable the programme to operate. From this it is hoped a small group of committed, interested local people will continue to work together to ensure the smooth running of the programme and that appropriate protocol is followed.

A major initiative for 2000 focuses on the establishment of a Community Information Technology Access Centre based at the school. This centre will link major Koorie organisations and education providers in the valley as well as providing informal access and courses for community people. The development of a local Koorie Website by local people including students at the school will be a major undertaking which will also

include the Latrobe Shire. Negotiations are currently under way with government bodies regarding this project.

Woolum Bellum continues to be involved in all Research Circle activities including visits to other schools and writing party sessions. In conjunction with Stephen Kemmis, academic consultant to the project, we have submitted a final draft of our work to the Circle for consideration and publication.

The opportunity for Woolum Bellum KODE School to participate in this national project has been a great advantage to the school and its community. It has provided information, experience and collegial exchange in a supportive and stimulating action based process. It has allowed the school to explore links with its community in a positive and practical manner. It has established a real commitment by a group of community people who have intimate knowledge of the needs and expectations of the community.

Partnerships will continue to grow and strengthen, expanding the circles of understanding and communication to ensure the link remains.