Training our teams to improve school attendance

In the Barkly region, everyone agrees that building relationships with families is the key to higher school attendance.

To support the Australian Government’s Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS), school attendance teams from across the Northern Territory’s Barkly region came together in Tennant Creek to come up with ways to boost school attendance in their local communities.

Run by the National Employment Services Association (NESA), the training session supplied the team members with more skills and ideas to deal with students with poor attendance records. School Attendance Supervisor Steven Lawton said everyone agreed that good communication skills and relationships with principals, teachers and families were crucial if their community was to achieve higher school attendance.

“If we can’t communicate properly nothing gets done so it’s good to have us all in the same place getting more skills and understanding so we can do our job better,” Steven said.

While RSAS team members already have good relationships within their own communities, CEO of Papulu Apparr-Kari Aboriginal Corporation (PAK), Karan Hayward, believes that the training is about helping team members with practical tools.  

“The training covers communication, building as a team, little bits and pieces that will empower my mob to encourage kids to go to school,” Karan said.

“It’s all about making the whole community responsible for getting kids to school everyday.”

NESA’s Marc Daley, who has run training workshops in different communities, has seen a common theme appear.

“I think there’s one goal in mind,” Marc said.

“Everybody recognises that education and cultural knowledge is the key for communities. Education and attendance has become a real discussion point happening across a lot of Aboriginal communities and it’s really good to see that everybody is working together for the future of their communities,” he said.

As part of the training NESA provides ongoing support through online courses, mentoring and coaching.

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