When it comes to her First Nation students, the Principal of Grasmere Primary School, Abby Madden, does her job almost too well. She and her staff have created a space in their small school, north of Warrnambool, where Indigenous students can feel safe, valued and free to be their authentic selves. 

“We have 97 students at the school and 14 are Indigenous,” Abby said. “We just wanted to provide our Indigenous students with a sense of space where they can connect with their culture, and their peers.”

Not all schools are the same. During a girls’ football match against another, larger school in the region, some of the Grasmere Indigenous players emotionally reported being racially vilified, and asked afterwards: why would kids from other schools do that? 

At Grasmere, the First Nations students said, they felt valued. Yet the incident emphasised to Abby and other school leaders that the time will come where these Indigenous children must leave the safe confines of Grasmere and step into potentially less nurturing secondary education, with much larger cohorts of students. 

The region’s Koorie engagement support officers contacted Beyond the Bell, a place-based initiative that works to ensure every student in the south-west region of Victoria is connected to education and actively engaged in learning; as well as very familiar with the struggles First Nations students can endure moving from primary to secondary school. 

“The data and research back up what we’re seeing in our local schools, which is that by the end of years seven and eight, First Nations students have almost double the absenteeism of the rest of the cohort,” said Beyond the Bell executive officer Davina Forth. “Then there’s a huge decline in First Nations students being at school at all by the end of years nine and ten. 

“From our point of view, it’s a critical area of support for Beyond the Bell and one that is just always under serviced. Our area’s three Koorie Engagement Support Officers do an amazing job with what they have, but they need to work across the whole region, which is more than 30 schools. What they have isn’t enough to get around these students and support them effectively, so that’s how we came into the picture.”

Supported by the Ross Trust, Beyond the Bell has developed two strands of support for Indigenous students and their families. The first is a First Nations Leadership Program for primary students, and the second is creating tailored resource manuals for school staff and Indigenous families, collating all available support services that a family might need to help young students navigate difficulties in their ongoing education journey. 

“Nobody had mapped out all the Koorie-centred programs in the district to help those young people through their schooling and education and career pathways afterwards,” Davina said. “The Ross Trust has enabled us to activate a whole First Nations education engagement strategy. The support has been instrumental in us being able to bring all these other small projects happening around the place together to have a greater impact across the board. It’s an ongoing systematic support rather than just these little things happening around the community.” 

Abby Madden said the mapping project brings together the many services in the area to help Indigenous families in need. “We thought that would be amazing for a family going from kinder to prep: as in, what support do they have to tap into? It’s really important going into Year Seven and then again, leaving school into the workplace. How do we best support our families in those times?”

“We wanted to connect with a philanthropic foundation that was invested in our concerns and found The Ross Trust, who understood the sense of having this wrap-around community.”

“Supporting the First Nations engagement strategy speaks to the Ross Trust’s deep belief in equity and opportunity,” says Ross Trust Executive Officer Meghan Weekes. “It’s inspiring to see local leaders and educators driving this work, and we feel privileged to walk alongside schools, families and communities. Our hope is that every First Nations student feels proud of who they are, connected to culture, and supported to thrive at every stage of their learning journey.”

The leadership program has been introduced to 13 primary schools in the Warrnambool region, including Grasmere Primary, where Abby has been deeply involved in crafting the work. 

“Day One was about creating a logo, that they could have pride in, while offering the students a voice and agency to decide what they wanted this to look like,” she said. “We had a local Indigenous author visit to talk about their love of school and literacy; about it being aspirational to write books. 

“The children really wanted to do bush cooking, and art and be out in the environment.”

All these activities in the Beyond the Bell program have given the Grasmere Indigenous students more agency, confidence and reinforcement to carry into what comes next.

With the backing of the Ross Trust, Beyond the Bell has been able to put the leadership program in place, including organised male and female education programs that bring Indigenous students from many schools together. It means the students form strong friendships with other Indigenous kids outside of their primary school cohort, so that they don’t feel alone when they arrive at secondary school. 

“Suddenly in this big space by themselves, they’ve actually got connections and friends already established before they get there,” Davina said. “There’s that face of an older student that they know and trust when they get to the high schools.”

It can make all the difference.