It Start Here: Supporting Tasmanian Aboriginal children to engage with early schooling

1. It Start Here: Supporting Tasmanian Aboriginal children to  engage with early schooling

2. It Starts Here: Ready for School In 2004 – 2005 the Tasmanian Aboriginal Education Association (TAEA) commissioned a report that encompassed:a literature searchdata collection interviews with community members to research to what extent Aboriginal children in Tasmania were ready to make a strong start with their formal schooling.

3. It Starts Here: Recommendations • The range of experiences that young children have with their families, their extended family and their community be acknowledged, valued and supported. • Every effort be made to inform Aboriginal families in an appropriate manner about school-based early years and parent support programs at their local school. • A model of support be adopted that supports Aboriginal families with transition to school through the early years, until good patterns of attendance are in place.

4. It Starts Here: Recommendations • Research be undertaken to determine whether existing school-based early years programs do provide a positive and welcoming environment for Aboriginal children and members of their families. • The Aboriginal Education Unit develop a model of providing personalized support to Aboriginal families aimed at encouraging participation in school-based early years programs.

5. A book was written for parents called Jump into School It has been very well received by the Aboriginal Community andother stakeholders

6. Early Childhood Education Domain 1 • Early childhood is acknowledged as a period of critical physical, emotional intellectual and social growth. • Recent evidence from the neurological sciences suggest that 75% of brain development occurs during the first five years of life. • Early childhood education is critical to overcome disadvantage.

7. Early Childhood Education • Aboriginal students are put in jeopardy not just by the circumstances of birth or environment, but by the school itself. • They are at risk of failing not because they can’t learn but because the school has not adequately engaged them… Australian Directions in Indigenous Education 2005-2008

8. Universal Access to Early Childhood Education • Universal Access is an Australian Government initiative to ensure that by 2013, every Australian child will have access to a quality, affordable early childhood learning program. • This initiative is the centrepiece of the Government’s comprehensive early childhood reform agenda, which recognises the critical role of early learning to a child’s present and future well being.

9. Universal Access to Early Childhood Education • In Tasmania Aboriginal Education has received funding to identify and structure the entry of four‑year‑old Aboriginal children to kindergarten and improve the attendance of Aboriginal families attending pre-kindergarten and kindergarten programs.

10. Launch into Learning Project • Launching into Learning is a Tasmanian Education Department initiative and commitment to the years prior to formal school with over 100 schools involved at this time. • These schools are taking on a greater role in engaging and forming relationships with families before children come to school. • All schools are implementing strategies and programs to support early literacy and school readiness as a priority. • Schools are deliberately focussing on the needs of their community and making connections and forming partnerships with other groups, services and agencies in the area.

11. The Aboriginal Early Years Liaison Officers: Birth to Prep This role was developed as a result of the recommendation in the TAEA Report It Starts Here. There is an Early Years Liaison Officer in each Learning Service The role includes: • work and liaise with Aboriginal parents, the Aboriginal community and schools to ensure Aboriginal kindergarten and prep aged children are enrolled, attend and engage with learning;

12. The Aboriginal Early Years Liaison Officers: Birth to Prep • support Aboriginal parents to participate in the Birth to Four Launch into Learning Program; • support Aboriginal students at times of transition; • work with Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers to support parents and children pastorally and culturally.

13. The AEYLO Program seeks to enable: • all eligible Aboriginal children to be enrolled and attend kindergarten; • all Aboriginal children to have pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills including appropriate oral language patterns, well developed vocabulary and conceptual understandings;

14. The AEYLO Program seeks to enable: • Aboriginal parents/guardians to be engaged in their children’s learning; • schools to develop culturally appropriate provisions for Aboriginal children; • teachers to teach explicitly, developmentally - based on efficacy research.

15. Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers Kindergarten to Grade Two Aboriginal Community Liaison Workers are in schools with a high number of Aboriginal students in the early years. • Their role is both cultural and pastoral. • They support Aboriginal parents and their children to engage with school. • They support Aboriginal students to develop an understanding of their identity, culture and history.

16. Other Important Factors School Leadership Strong, proactive and informed leadership: • creates a school and community culture of high expectations for Aboriginal students; • meaningful engages with Aboriginal parents/guardians and community agencies for educational change; • supports their staff to shape and respond professionally to the social and cultural context of Aboriginal learners, rather than blaming it; • establishes and pursues a sense of accountability for comparable outcomes for Aboriginal students.

17. Other Important Factors School and Community Educational Partnerships • The development of genuine partnership, … remains the primary platform to productive, stimulating and responsive highly effective schools servicing Aboriginal students. • Aboriginal communities are complex and diverse. Determining the educational provision that will maximise educational outcomes for Aboriginal students requires careful consideration.

18. Other Important Factors Quality Teaching • Quality teaching is recognised as the hallmark for success. Quality teaching is particularly responsive to Aboriginal students’ needs. • Of particular importance is the dimension of significance – pedagogy that makes learning more meaningful and important to Aboriginal students, drawing clear connections with students’ prior knowledge and identities with contexts outside the classroom, and with multiple ways of knowing or cultural perspectives. Australian Directions in Indigenous Education 2005-2008

19. Quality teaching means: • engaging with data and evidence based research to inform the teaching and learning; • positively engaging with students; • extending the dimension of ‘intellectual quality’ into ‘problematic knowledge’ and ‘metalanguage’; • ensuring a quality learning environment that includes engagement, social support, high expectations, student self regulation and student self direction.