Bairnsdale Secondary College’s Clontarf Academy is surrounded in a friendly atmosphere which plays a pivotal role in developing young indigenous students.
The Clontarf Foundation started in 2000 with a single academy located at the Clontarf Aboriginal College in Waterford, WA.
The program catered for 25 students and was operated by two staff members, including founder and current CEO Gerard Neesham. More than 20 years on, the Foundation operates 162 academies across Australia supporting more than 12,000 participants and employing more than 600 dedicated staff members.
Posters on the walls at the secondary college describe the programs and explain what the room means to the young men who use it.
All participants are expected to be entirely connected and engaged with the academic life of the school but the meeting room is where the Clontarf Academy program is grounded.
Every wall is covered in posters illustrating the aims and objectives of Clontarf.
These posters promote the programs but also remind participants of their activities and achievements and what their cohort stands for.
The fundamental objective for these young people is to encourage them to remain at school, to keep doing their studies at least up to year 10 but primarily to remain at high school until year 12.
However, because everybody is different there are also pathways for stepping out into the world and employment earlier.
The Clontarf Academy Centre at Bairnsdale Secondary College has evidence of the program all over the walls in its meeting room.
Colourful posters advertise the existence of programs for gaining a driver’s licence, how to get employment, of camps that are coming up or of sporting activities but the centrepiece is a chart, a grid which instantly shows the progress of each student.
How they’re going shows up as a percentage that reflects their engagement and attendance – their capacity to show up and be present.
It is from this measure that rewards such as attendance at camps are distributed.
At a glance mentors and fellow students have a window into the progress and the engagement of each student in the programme – and of course it’s a read-out on which students may need a helping hand.
There is a poster showing past sports camps but it’s not all about sport.
Recently a group of these young men was taken to the High
Country. For some of them it was the first time they’d been in the snow.
Clontarf as an organisation has a number of commercial relationships, for example through Wesfarmers which of course in Bairnsdale establishes valuable connections to Bunnings and Kmart.
Out of these connections skills workshops in carpentry and metal work, for example, are made possible as well as work experience and employment opportunities.
