5 minute read
Our Reconciliation Action Plan
Other highpoints included swimming in the crystal clear Kuang Si waterfall, exploring local markets and tasting local delicacies, visiting pepper and silk farms, riding around in tuk-tuks and touring a floating local village.
Although everyone had their personal hardships and challenges to face, which came to the fore as they trekked for more than 30km across the Cambodian jungle, the shared support of the whole team pushed the girls to the finish line.
When it was finally time to depart Bangkok to head back to Perth after 24 days, the girls were sad to be leaving. The group consider this a once-in-alifetime experience, through which they had grown both as individuals and a group. The girls wished that all students could have such an incredible opportunity to travel off the beaten track as a teenager, to learn more about the world and about themselves.
“We are all so grateful that we had the opportunity to go on a trip like this no words can describe how truly amazing the experience was,” said Tanika Webb.
We are excited to announce our commitment to developing a formal Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) to foster higher levels of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and contributions, for the benefit of our whole community. We are inviting expressions of interest from anyone who might like to be part of our RAP development and implementation journey.
Our RAP will be centred around our Core Shared Values of Synergy, Respect, Integrity, Growth, Knowledge and Empathy. Through our RAP, we will commit to strengthening relevant relationships, respect and opportunities in the classroom, around the College and with the community.
Developing our Action Plan is a long-term commitment that will require ongoing consideration and collaborative effort. Within our community, there is unique knowledge and valuable experience that we would love to see reflected in our plan. Therefore, we seek your support to ensure our RAP creates meaningful and sustainable change.
Our community of student’s who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander has steadily grown since 2017, when we formalised our partnership with Madalah – a not-for-profit organisation that offers Secondary and Tertiary education scholarships for Indigenous students from remote and regional communities.
If you would like to be involved with the development and ongoing implementation of our Action Plan, including being part of the RAP Working Group, please contact our Aboriginal Liaison Officer Jess O’Donnell at ODonnJ@penrhos.wa.edu.au. To learn more about the RAP development process, you may also like to visit www.narragunnawali.org.au.
The Penrhos Passport… where will your journey of discovery take you?
by Paul McCarthy Dean of Co-Curricular
“There is more to us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.” Kurt Hahn, German Philosopher, Educator and Round Square Founder
What a simultaneously exciting and daunting challenge we have before us – to prepare students for life and work in a rapidly changing environment, for jobs and for technologies, some of which have not even been created yet. 1 We need to do this whilst supporting students in developing the strong social and emotional foundation skills they need to thrive in a highly dynamic labour market and rapidly changing world. 2
Our Pre-Kindergarten class will graduate in 2034. To get some perspective on the pace of change we can expect between now and then, let’s consider what we have now that didn’t exist 40 years ago — the internet, email, phones without cords, Sat Nav, Spotify, Google, Chicken McNuggets(!), disposable contact lenses, LEGO that moves, online shopping, Uber and Facebook, to name but a few. Now think about our students in the context of current research projections – for example, it is anticipated that 40% of jobs today will not exist in 10 years; Dubai has committed that 25% of its transport will be automated by 2030” 3 ; “China is opening one new university per week” 4 ; and an IBM Marketing cloud report asserts that “90% of the data in the world was produced in the last two years” 5 and that figure was provided in 2016!
This is the new world we need to prepare for.
Our Penrhos co-curricular purpose statement is “Students continuously explore interests
and embrace opportunities for challenge and extension, that contribute to their own awareness and personal growth, and that positively impact the surrounding social, cultural, environmental and global context.”
I am excited to share news of a whole-school cocurricular initiative, designed to help achieve
our school purpose to “inspire girls to become extraordinary women”. We are seeking to attain membership of the Round Square international collective of nearly 220 schools in 50 countries, bound together by a very particular values-based approach to education, centred on the importance of student agency and voice in each personal learning journey. Values-based education deals with qualities and attitudes, personality and strength of character (resilience); Round Square inspires and draws out every child’s capacity for achievement, recognising that learning is most effective when it is practical, crosscultural and collaborative.
Round Square experiences are designed and based on the I.D.E.A.L.S – Internationalism, Democracy, Environmentalism, Adventure, Leadership and Service. Whether via online interactions, or face-toface in cultural or service opportunities, regionally or (ultimately) internationally, our students will engage in real-world learning and periods of reflection as part of
this global initiative. We will align our Pre-K–Year12 co-curricular activities in service learning, chaplaincy, cultural and Indigenous immersion, Duke of Edinburgh Award and associated sporting, creative, artistic and academic programs. Opportunities for challenge and extension will abound for both Junior and Secondary School students, as we leverage our Round Square membership to frame and extend our cultural awareness, understandings and engagement opportunities — through the key areas of Global Exchange, Tours and Service — each personalised to the individual.
I look forward to sharing news of our progress across the coming months.
1 Kools, M. And Stoll L. (2016) , “What makes a School a Learning Organisation?”, OECD Education Working
Papers, No. 137, OECD Publishing Paris, 12 2 Kools, M and Stoll L. (2016), 12 3 https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2019/01/ dubai-world-challenge-self-driving-transport/ 4 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-35776555
5 https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/291358/90- of-todays-data-created-in-two-years.html
