A brief history on Yuendumu
Warlpiri people have lived in Central Australia for over 20,000 years. First contact with white people came in the late 19th century, with the coming of pastoralism. By the 1920s many Warlpiri people were living with families on cattle stations and around the mines at the Granites, Tanami and at Mt Doreen.
Yuendumu was set up as a government ration station in 1946. In 1974 a Baptist Mission was established and a school was set up shortly after. Until the 1970s most people still lived in traditional dwellings, humpies ‘yujuku’. Houses started to be built from 1970s. The settlement is divided into camps, according to the compass directions; North ‘Yatijarra’, South ‘Kurlirra’, East ‘Kakarrara and West ‘Karlarra’.
Yuendumu School is located 3 hours north-west of Alice Springs on the Tanami H-way. The road is sealed all the way and takes about 3 hours to drive. The community has a range of services including a pool, post office, 2 general stores and of course – access to the amazing desert country of Central Australia. The school caters for approximately 220 students from birth (thru the Families as First Teachers Program) to Year 12.
Teaching and learning at our school is bilingual and therefore is delivered in both Warlpiri and English, with the Warlpiri Theme Cycle used as a basis for integrating curriculum using the NT Indigenous Languages and Culture Curriculum and the Australian Curriculum. Teaching and learning is delivered by a teaching team that includes a Warlpiri Educator (known as an assistant teacher) and a Classroom Teacher. This team-teaching approach allows us to build from the rich linguistic and cultural heritage, knowledge and capability that our students bring to school.
All our teaching teams deliver literacy instruction in both Warlpiri and English using a synthetic phonics approach (Warlpiri Phonics & Read Write Inc.), Mathematics is delivered using Learning Through Doing and our Social and Emotional Learning program is based on the Rights, Resilience and Respectful Relationships resource developed by Melbourne University. The school curriculum also includes a Learning in Country Program we call LinC, that enables every class to be in-Country with Senior Warlpiri Educators, Elders and their class teachers on a regular basis. LinC supports our students to learn language and culture in the Country it belongs, with the custodians of knowledge and place leading the stories, the skills and knowledge they learn.
At Yuendumu School, we use our school values to drive whole school approaches to student engagement and behaviour, and we activate inclusive practices to support our students to participate and learn. Our School Values drive the way we work with each other, as a team to plan, deliver and evaluate the impact of our programs – Being proud of who we are and our community (pukurl-pukurlpa), Being kind with our words and actions (yulkanjaku) and Being as one, together (jintangka).