Indigenous Education Program
The St Patrick’s College’s Indigenous Education Program (IEP) continues to provide local, regional and interstate Indigenous students with positive educational, social and vocational outcomes in line with the explicit aims of the eight MCEETYA (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs) guidelines:
- Improvement of Literacy outcomes for Indigenous students.
- Improvement of Numeracy outcomes for Indigenous students.
- Strategies to increase the involvement of Indigenous parents and community members in education.
- Strategies to increase Indigenous enrolments.
- Improvement of educational outcomes for Indigenous students – retention, completion, attendance and progression rates.
- Expanding employment and training of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
- Ensuring appropriate professional development of staff involved in Indigenous education.
- Developing and extending culturally inclusive curriculum.
The College continues to develop educational and vocational pathways for Indigenous students, whilst also ensuring that students are fully embraced by the College and immersed within the rich traditions of St Patrick’s College, Ballarat.
The College acknowledges that it educates boys in partnership with their home communities and so honours and acknowledges the cultural and social context of Indigenous students.The College’s commitment to Indigenous education is central to its mission as a Catholic school for boys in the charism of Blessed Edmund Rice.
The introduction of targeted programmes for Indigenous students has been complemented by the appointment of staff to clearly articulated roles. This has greatly increased the level of support provided to students, both in and outside of the classroom, and has played an important role in student retention and educational achievement.
The College is continuing to refine and expand its programmes to better accommodate the needs of students and to redress the significant imbalance in educational outcomes for Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians.
The Indigenous Youth Leadership Program
Working in partnership with St Patrick’s College, the IYLP is run by The Smith Family, with funding support through the National Indigenous Australians Agency. The Government-funded program aims to close the gaps in Indigenous educational disadvantage by creating greater access to additional education choice for Indigenous students, particularly those from remote and very remote areas of the country.
In addition to helping Indigenous students achieve their educational aspirations, the IYLP supports the development of positive role models and leaders to inspire other Indigenous students.
