My role as a classroom teacher in the NSW Department of Education is to support my students to:
- develop a strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity
- achieve academically
- be well-prepared as global citizens for a changing and increasingly interconnected world.
Whilst the usual NAIDOC celebrations in July had to be postponed this year, staff at Fennell Bay Public School felt we still needed to acknowledge such an important event.
Students in my Kindergarten class celebrated NAIDOC Week this year by:
• Participating in a school incursion to Boomerang Mountain – a sacred site for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the school grounds. As part of a unit of work in geography, students wrote recounts to explain the significance of the site.
• Designing and making artworks in response to the texts Big Rain Coming by Katrina Germein and The Bat and the Crocodile by Jacko Dolumyu.
• Planting a native lilly pilly tree on the school grounds. Students learnt that for thousands of years Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have used lilly pilly for its antibacterial and healing properties.
Yours in education,
Mr Gary Hughes
Classroom Teacher ES1
