When we were invited to support the Native Garden on the Ryan Campus, we did not realise we would literally open up a can of worms! We started by asking our Traditional’s Owners, the Wulgurukaba nation about a naming word for the garden. When we visited the site together, they shared an unfortunate historical truth about how many first nations people did not meet with a good end on this land. This led to finding a word that means 'make good' as that is what this garden will be doing and sharing this truth telling with the community. We had the unveiling and blessing with a traditional smoking ceremony on Wednesday 10th March followed by a water ritual by our Parish Priests which was live streamed simultaneously to the Yrs 5-12 Assembly in Emmaus Hall. It was a solemn and moving event that was well received. We are so proud to be part of this truth telling at the College and to be able to welcome the College Community to the Bambarama Garden.

  

On Thursday 11th March, we were privileged to host Uncle Russell Butler (local bush tucker expert) to share his knowledge and stories about sustainability. He yarned with Yr 7, 9, 12, 1 & 2 classes. A lot of wide eyed wonder from these sessions!

    

On Wednesday 17th March at the end of the Assembly, we officially launched our Junior campus mural. A short video was sent to all classrooms and it went live on Facebook too. Five classes (Prep - Year 4) were invited down to the space to view and ask questions which they did very well. The Artist, Nicky Pryor from Bidju Designs created this vibrant mural to complement our Yarning Circle space using the totems of the Wulgurukaba, the Brolga, White Cockatoo and the Warrior shield along with our school pillars of Community, Journey and Service as symbols. We also managed to include the house colours. We hope you can identify them!

  

We have re-launched our regular program called the Burara Mentoring program which seeks to match Years 10, 11 & 12 students with an external mentor (an ex-student who is Indigenous or another mature adult).  Our event at Kingpin Bowling on Wednesday 17th March, saw over 30 people attend with the Mentors and students having a good chance to yarn in between bowling, laser tag and snacks. We are looking forward to a great year ahead with one-on-one mentoring and events each term which will see us gathering as a group. 

  We are very proud to announce that our Yr 11 student Makayla Dass has been chosen to be on the YMCA Queensland Youth Parliament representing Thuringowa. Participants will form committees and, over the course of the program, each committee will develop a Youth Bill which will be debated at Parliament House in September. The program runs from April until October and Makayla will be invited to travel to Brisbane in the school holidays for the first event. We wish her all the best!

Anushka Tanna  was selected to participate in the National Schools Constitutional Convention program on Wednesday 24 March and Thursday 25 March 2021. The 2021 convention program is being delivered nationwide online with over 115 students participating via state and territory hubs. The purpose of the convention program is to promote learning about the Australian Constitution – including how it shapes our democracy – and understanding of our democratic heritage and tradition; and provide students with the opportunity to meaningfully engage with important civic issues.

This year, 12 students in years 9-12 have signed up for our reading program with Shalom Christian College, which has meant that we have been able to expand to deliver the program on two mornings each week. This means that outside their classrooms, students in Prep-Year 2 at Shalom are getting the opportunity to read aloud twice a week with our students helping them with some of their tricky words. Students from both schools have thoroughly enjoyed this program and we look forward to starting up again in Week 2 next term. If your child/ren are interested in joining us next term, make sure to collect a permission slip from the Indigenous Education Support Office in Week 1.

Homework Club is a supervised independent study session for Years 5-12 held in E1 on Mondays-Wednesdays and the Tutoring sessions for more individual help is in E2 on Mondays-Thursdays.