Aboriginal Services - Making Tracks
-Supporting and encouraging Aboriginal Students and their families at school -

Making Tracks is a Spyns project funded by Better Futures to support and encourage Aboriginal students and their families at school.

Making Tracks is aimed at promoting school connectedness through:

• Hands on learning
• Resilience building
• Cultural activities
• Family support

 

Making Tracks is a two year program funded by Better Futures and is an early intervention strategy designed to engage Aboriginal students in their learning by giving them the opportunity to learn through hands-on projects with an Aboriginal perspective. The overall aim of the project is to engage Aboriginal students in their schooling and see them gain their School Certificate or Higher School Certificate. Students involved in Making Tracks participate in hands-on activities designed around the students’ interests, practically applying relevant cultural, academic and social learning. Guest speakers and role models attend the group activities to offer encouragement and support. Students are also regularly involved in resilience building activities to make them stronger and able to cope with future challenges more effectively. Students are encouraged and supported to be engaged in the whole school environment.

A major component of the project is Family Support. Family support is aimed at enabling Parents to be more active in their child’s education. Family members are encouraged through various activities and ways to be more involved in their child’s education.

This year the students are participating in a dance program through which Aboriginal language, music and cultural knowledge is learned. Performances are planned for NAIDOC week and several other Cranebrook community events.

Making Tracks is a project we are very proud of; it’s a unique program working with Aboriginal students at Kingswood Park and Braddock Public School’s. The core of the program is “Proud, Strong & Smart” and children do a range of culturally-based, hands-on activities to engage them in their education. The program is tied to the curriculum and the children are assessed against the learning outcomes for their stages. It is a program that is seeing results in children’s engagement and behaviour at school as well as strongly developing cultural identity and pride. The Kingswood Park  Making Tracks boys  performed a Welcome to Country dance at the 2009 Cranebrook Performing Arts Festival – their parents were so proud!

Invitations have flooded in for the boys to perform at other civic events as a result. Chris Reid-Making Tracks worker has developed this into an outstanding program.

 

Chris can be contacted on (02) 4729 0442 or 0408 417 419

Braddock Making Tracks

2009 Tribal Warrior Excursion