Cairns West State School currently has 720 students. Just under 500 students are Aboriginal
or Torres Strait Islander students. There are also close to 100 refugee students mainly
from Nepal. In our school Doing Whatever it Takes means mentoring and supervising and
nurturing the next generation of teachers who are going to enter our schools, and the
reality is that the further North you live from Brisbane, you will have some turnover
in staff. I guess I do not like to leave to chance the teachers we see arriving in our
school at the beginning of the year. We have a strong partnership with Cairns West State
School at James Cook University and that involves students from our on campus program and students
from our RATEP program. My name is Salma Gela and I am a final year Bachelor of Education.
I study the Remote Area Teacher Education Program. The RATEP Centre incorporates the
diploma and certificate students from TAFE and also the Bachelor of Education students,
second through to fourth year. The RATEP program has been going for 25 years now. It provides
pathways for Indigenous people into teacher education. It's got support from three sectors.
My name is Jasmine Johnstone and I'm currently in third year Remote Area Teacher Education.
I finished my Diploma through TNQ TAFE and then that accredited me to step into first
year of university. In the Diploma I did two weeks of Professional Experience at Cairns
West and that was part of the program. It's a really beneficial program to have based
at our school because many of the parents are in fact parents at our school so what
it does is it brings together a bit of a community to the school, and what it also shows is that
you can aspire to become a teacher even if you had a not so good start in school. At
James Cook University, professional experience is everybody's business in Education. All
staff have relationships with different schools according to their particular areas and backgrounds,
but we make sure that staff are attached to schools and that they develop long term relationships
with those schools. The curriculum that we offer students is well integrated into their
Professional Experience program and the Principal here is on our Professional Experience Advisory
Committee and also on our RATEP management committee. Having that strong partnership
with Cairns West, I'm able to go and build partnerships with the teachers. I've learnt
on my prac how the teachers, because of the student cohort, implement their own pedagogies
that suit their class on an individual level, so it's very good. They utilize you. The teacher
gives the instruction and if students are still are still unaware, I would say it in
our language, in the Torres Strait Islander Creole, Yumplatok, and then this is how we
would say it in English. We're able to give some teachers some ideas on how to incorporate
an Indigenous perspective into their curriculum. It's an additional set of professional hands
in the classroom and it's a different style sometimes. The teachers get used to the fact
that they won't just have one teacher in the classroom but they will in fact have two teachers
in the classroom, and in particular for the older years that helps transition into junior
secondary. All the partners believe that that will have a direct effect on the learning
of Indigenous students in schools, but will also have an effect on all students when they
see an Indigenous teacher as a regular part of a school population. Most importantly it's
that building, and having that relationship with the staff, the parents as well as the
students. In many ways it's the multiple relationships that we have with the school that all reinforce
one another. My name is Aleisha O'Toole and I have just finished my degree at JCU in Cairns
and I was also a part of the Mt Stuart Teacher Education Centre of Excellence Program, which
was based at Cairns West State School. Cairns West has been very lucky over the last three
or four years in that we have been part of a systemic program. The Centre of Excellence
Program that we've been part of is the Mt Stuart Cluster Project, which is based in
Townsville, and that cluster project works in partnership with James Cook University.
It takes the top five or ten percent of third year students; in terms not only in terms
of their academic performance but also in terms of whether they are going to be suitable
as teachers. There is screening that we do with potential students when they come in,
and then we have them as preservice teachers in our school. Cairns West State School really
shaped who I wanted to be as a teacher. They have a strong relationship with families and
to invite them in regularly, so that probably drove me to want to work at this school. One
of the real benefits of the Mount Stuart Cluster pre-service teachers is that when they come
to us they are classroom ready. The reason that they are classroom ready is that they
have worked with teachers at our school for twelve months and they learn the really important
things about teaching. One of those really important things is how you engage with parents.
50% of the thing that impacts on student learning is parent engagement or unlocking that parent
engagement. The leadership team within the school is very supportive of beginning teachers.
They work very strongly with JCU to ensure we are quality teachers when we leave because
they see us as future employees within the system of Education Queensland. So, not only
does Michael our Principal go out there during the Prof-Ex Week and letting students know
what is required to meet the folio and what is expected to become a qualified teacher,
but within the school they're constantly ensuring that we are meeting the regional priorities
so we can walk into the school and know what's expected within Education Queensland. Most
importantly, we're working towards the same goals - a better life for people in the Tropics
- and so we really aim to serve our region and that means serving our region's schools.
For me it's understanding where these kids come from. I'd like to teach in the city first,
to build a toolbox before eventually going into rural and remote. I'd like to go back
into Indigenous communities.