6 minute read
It takes a village
Editorial: Lane Mihaljevic
Photography: Jesse Wray-McCann
When Leading Senior Constable Alison Keppel walks into Olympic Village Primary School in Melbourne’s northeast, she’s met with open arms — not just because she’s popular among the students, but because she’s the very reason some of them are at school in the first place.
Two years ago, after speaking with a young boy walking through Heidelberg West by himself during school hours, Banyule Proactive Policing Unit’s Ldg Sen Const Keppel was pulled by the heartstrings.
Lacking support at home to get himself to school on time and too embarrassed to enter class after the first bell rang, this student was missing out on his education.
He wasn’t a school refuser, he just couldn’t get there.
“After speaking with him, I was devastated,” Ldg Sen Const Keppel said.
“It was just so clear that he wasn’t getting the support he needed at home to go to school on a regular basis.
“So when I met with the staff at Olympic Village Primary and found out how many other kids were in the same boat, I knew we had to do something to help.”
From there, Ldg Sen Const Keppel and her colleagues worked with the school, Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court, Banyule Community Health, and local charity organisation Open House to develop a program that’s now a cornerstone of the school community.
With the primary goal of providing struggling families with the assistance they need to get their kids to class on a daily basis, they called it ‘Let’s get there’.
Once a child at Olympic Village Primary School is enrolled in the program, they’re picked up from home and dropped off at school by volunteer minibus drivers every morning.
These drivers not only greet each child at their front door and ensure they get to school safely, but can also provide teachers and support staff with information about students’ welfare if they notice anything out of the ordinary.
“The program’s pick-up and drop-off system not only gets these students to Olympic Village Primary by 9am every day, but also allows the school to stay across the kids’ situations at home,” Ldg Sen Const Keppel said.
“If the kids don’t come to the door and hop on the bus when it first comes past to collect them, the bus driver will go around the block and pick up other kids, giving them some time to come out.
“But if they don’t come out at all, or something doesn’t seem quite right when they do come out, the bus driver will let the school know – who can then ask us (local police) to check in on the family if they have welfare concerns.”
To make attending school as easy as possible for students dealing with difficult situations at home, it was important to Ldg Sen Const Keppel that the program also included a breakfast club.
“Families struggling to get their kids to school on time are likely also struggling to put breakfast on the table,” she said.
So to ensure that students participating in the program have enough energy to start the day, volunteers direct them straight to the ‘breakfast room’ when they arrive at school, where they’re offered a nutritious meal and time to socialise with their peers before heading off to class.
Having seen participating students’ attendance increase by up to 55 per cent, Olympic Village Primary School principal Cleo Ndalianis sings the praises of the program.
“It’s been a game-changer for some of our kids,” Ms Ndalianis said.
“We now have a group of 20 enrolled in the program and we’re seeing significant changes in their attendance, their engagement in class, and their performance on assessments.
“But most importantly, we’re seeing a change in their demeanour – how happy they are to be at school and how keen they are to learn.
“For example, we have a family of girls, whose attendance at school was no higher than 40 per cent. But now, after a year of participating in the program, their attendance is over 85 per cent and they’re doing really well.”
With the girls now attending school on a regular basis, they’re also getting access to services like speech therapy, dental care, and education support.
Plus, their mother is more connected to the school community than ever before. She doesn’t feel shame seeking support and knows she can call on local police officers like Ldg Sen Const Keppel for help or advice if she needs it.
As they say, it takes a village to raise a child. “In this case, it’s Olympic Village,” Ms Ndalianis said, “because our whole community has really banded together to make this program work.
“But it wouldn’t be what it is today without Alison, the Banyule Proactive Policing Unit, and our volunteers. The students are now so used to seeing police members at school drop-off or the breakfast club that they’ve become friendly faces who are always here to help, not just faces of the law.”
Thinking back to when the students stepped off the program’s minibuses for the first time, Ldg Sen Const Keppel says there wasn’t a dry eye among the crowd of staff, volunteers, police, and community members watching on.
For some kids, that day marked the first time they had ever arrived at school prior to 9am.
“Everyone involved in getting the program up and running just knew it was going to change lives,” Ldg Sen Const Keppel said.
“If kids don’t get to school, they don’t get an education — and if they don’t get an education, that’s going to have an impact on their future. So being able to work with the community to remove some of the barriers preventing them from attending is just so special.”
With support from other community groups in the City of Banyule, Ldg Sen Const Keppel hopes to extend the project’s reach to neighbouring suburbs in the coming years.
“We’re in the process of securing buses and volunteers to help implement the program in another local school where kids are in need of support,” she said.
“But if I could, I’d set the program up for every school across the state.”
