When our students come to NGC School, we focus on reframing their past experiences. Rather than be held back by barriers, they can embrace a fresh start and grow to see themselves as capable, confident learners. In our experience, a huge part of achieving this comes from having an encouraging family and community.
Why Engaging Families and Communities Matter:
Research demonstrates that a significant obstacle to a student’s educational progress is low parental expectations concerning their school attendance and achievement. These expectations are typically influenced by a parent’s own level of education, traumatic school experiences and/or low socio-economic status.
However, when families are informed and engaged in school life, they are able to reinforce the positive messages that our young people receive at NGC about their potential to learn and grow. The more that parents and caregivers are invited to be partners in their young person's education, the more likely they are to actively encourage increased school attendance, RoSA and HSC attainment and pathways into further education and training.
As well as improved academic outcomes, family and community involvement also helps everyone to see school as an environment of affirmation, belonging and high expectations. There is also a well-documented link between young people feeling connected to family and community and the avoidance of risky or antisocial behaviours, which has a positive flow-on effect on their wellbeing.
How NGC Has Approached Family and Community Engagement:
With these ideas in mind, NGC has been working on strategies to effectively engage and integrate families and communities into our school, our curriculum and the learning and wellbeing outcomes of our young people. This is a two-way process of:
empowering parents and caregivers to actively participate in their young person's schooling
creating more opportunities for young people to feel connected to their wider family and community networks, thereby improving academic performance, wellbeing and self-regulation/behaviour
To help us implement these strategies, NGC secured funding from the Schools Plus Fair Education Program for a three-year pilot initiative we called 'Standing Strong with Families and Communities'. From 2021 to present, we have created so many opportunities for family and community engagement and integration.
Below are just some examples of what has been achieved:
Establishment of a Parent Portal:
We created a dedicated digital portal to help parents and caregivers stay connected to our school and keep up with all their young person's information. When they log into the portal, they can access attendance records, timetables, parent and teacher night dates, and notifications on other school and community events. It is also where parents can find documents such as permission slips and our regular quarterly newsletters, which update them on what we will be focusing on from a curriculum, vocational and extracurricular perspective throughout the term ahead.
Increased Family and Community Presence at School Events:
Over the past 2.5 years, following the COVID lockdown, we increased our number of whole-school, in-person events that were accessible to families and community members. This includes our Year 12 Graduation and Christmas celebrations, National Skills Week, NAIDOC and National Reconciliation Week events, and multiple morning teas for parents and caregivers.We also offered the opportunity for young people to connect with community members and alumni students through specifically curated school events.
Examples of these include:
Young people participating in morning teas onsite with community groups like Red Cross, Inner Wheel and Rotary. This intergenerational contact has been powerful and has helped to build mutually respectful relationships that many students otherwise wouldn't be exposed to.
Young people participating in a peer support event where they yarned with and heard presentations from former NGC students. Our alumni students offered advice on navigating barriers to employment, succeeding in further education and maintaining motivation and resilience when confronting setbacks. There were also industry-specific breakout sessions and workshops facilitated by these former students and support staff/teachers.
Structured Meetings with Parents/Caregivers:
NGC has focused on optimising all the touchpoints that we have with parents and caregivers within our school calendar. This is to ensure they feel informed about their young person's progress and challenges from an academic, social and wellbeing perspective, and are empowered to support them. Our Case Manager, Inclusive Education Teacher, Counsellor, and Aboriginal Education and Family Liaison Officer are all involved in these meetings, depending on the student in question.
Examples include:
Individual and Personal Learning Plan meetings (2 weeks after a young person commences with us, then between 2 – 4 per year depending on need)
Ongoing case meetings (on a monthly or bi-monthly basis depending on need)
Combined young person/carer counselling where needed (typically on a fortnightly basis for those who require it)
Parent/caregiver and teacher nights (2 per year)
Fostering Partnerships with Indigenous Organisations and Cultural Competency Amongst Staff: NGC has increased our collaboration with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and worked towards embedding cultural learning and perspectives in all aspects of our classroom, wellbeing and extracurricular activities via the expertise of Indigenous staff members. These external and internal partnerships are enriching the support network available to students and ensuring that we can adopt more culturally sensitive and affirmative approaches that foster both educational and welfare outcomes.
More Community, Civic and Social Opportunities for Young People:
Over the past three years, NGC has continued to create structured opportunities for young people to participate in their local and regional community, as well as connect with national and global causes.Some of these opportunities have included:
participating in an inter-school Indigenous Traditional Games event (Cooinda Cup)
volunteering their time with Inner Wheel for the 'Days for Girls' initiative, which supports young girls living in period poverty in developing countries
connecting with PCYC for workshops on drugs and alcohol, safe sex and relationships, barista training, learner driving and self-defence
cleaning up parks, beaches and private properties of Indigenous elders
taking part in a film screening of The Last Daughter and presentation by Aunty Brenda Matthews
creating videos to explore the UN Sustainable Development Goals and celebrate United Nations Day
participating in International Women's Day events and the Central Coast 'March 4 Justice' to combat domestic violence
completing vocational work placements at a range of local businesses
venturing to Sydney to watch Bangarra Dance Theatre in Sydney
meeting local MPs who visit our school such as Liesl Tesch MP and Dr Gordon Reid MP
The Impact of Our Efforts:
As a result of our efforts, NGC has seen increased engagement from parents and community members, evidenced by higher attendance at school events and more frequent use of the Parent Portal. This has empowered parents and caregivers to become more informed about how our school and curriculum operates and the various educational and training opportunities that are available to their young people. By increasing their own capacity in this way, they are now better equipped to support their young person's learning and work together with our teachers and support staff to address the complex needs and barriers that arise.
Graph Below Shows Increase in the Family Contacts in NGC's Database Resulting from Our Initiative
We have also seen many positive impacts amongst our young people. From improved attendance and engagement to better mental health outcomes and a reduction in behavioural issues, we have observed encouraging trends in learning and wellbeing amongst our young people.
Moving forward, NGC plans to build on these successes by continuing to engage with our community at all levels, expanding our support networks, and integrating a variety of engagement opportunities for parents and caregivers into the regular school calendar. Working with families and communities is an ongoing and worthwhile process for NGC. We have certainly learnt that acting in good faith and ‘going the extra mile’ to communicate and engage has so many positive impacts. Let's keep this momentum going!
NGC acknowledges the Schools Plus Fair Education Program for their generous funding of our 3-year pilot initiative.
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