WULUNGARRA COMMUNITY SCHOOL

Principal: Carolyn Pickett

Wulungarra Community School is a small community school in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is located south east of Fitzroy Crossing on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert and surrounded by the Saint George Ranges.

The school is built on Millijidee Cattle Station and both the school and the cattle station are owned and run by Kadjina Community.

Access by 4WD is available for most of the year. During the wet season the Fitzroy River and the many small creeks in that river system can cut off road access. At these times access is limited to light planes.

When the roads are accessible we are about 230km or three hours’ drive from Fitzroy Crossing and about 420 km or five hours’ drive from Broome The school has two Toyota troop carriers used for bush trips and general school business.

All children at Kadjina come to school with English as their second or third language. Their home language environment is a combination of Walmajarri and Kriol and English to varying degrees. A high priority in our school is to teach the children to speak, read and write in English. However, as the language group at Kadjina is Walmajarri, the school has language consultants who teach Walmajarri in the school, as well as making resources which promote the use of and profile of the traditional language.

The school caters to a range of ages and abilities from preschoolers to adolescents in two multi-aged classrooms. The community is very remote and there are few organisations or institutions therefore babies are welcomed into the school environment from a very early age and toddlers have a special session devoted to them in order to give them school ‘savvy’ at an early age.

Through the literature production centre we have focused on developing the technology area in our school. The children and language specialists have had training in using both Desk Top Publishing and related IT skills.

We strive to value and respect Indigenous ways of operating while at the same time developing skills and understandings about the demands of contemporary society. In this way we are committed to bringing success to every student every day.