Carinity Education Rockhampton is fostering positive change in the community by collaborating with a Woorabinda school as part of the City-Country Partnerships.
The program develops formal partnerships between high-performing independent schools and remote schools with a high proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
Carinity Education Rockhampton has linked with Wadja Wadja High School for the Australian Government initiative, which is facilitated by the Yadha Muru Foundation.
It is one of 14 partnerships forged by schools across Australia aimed at improving student outcomes and attendance rates and paving the way for a brighter, more inclusive future for all Australians.
The program provides classroom, diagnostic and relational supports to the country school and delivers external school experiences for students including excursions.
Carinity Education Rockhampton Principal, Lyn Harland, said the schools' two-year partnership would be a "transformative journey" designed to develop "friendship, cultural respect and education pathway supports."
"We hope the program will help students foster a greater understanding of themselves and empathy towards others, while also respecting a different cultural perspective," Lyn said.
"We are learning many social, cultural and rural-based initiatives from the country school. This partnership is not merely about connecting schools; it's a concerted effort to bring about positive change within these communities.
The first collaboration between Carinity Education Shalom and Wadja Wadja, located between Emerald and Biloela, saw students attend an adventure camp.
During the multi-day camp near Toowoomba students participated in team-building activities including negotiating obstacle courses and waterways, tunnel challenges, and carrying people on stretchers through mud pits.
Wadja Wadja High School Principal, Paul Ryan, said as well as promoting student leadership and co-operation, the gathering helped to cultivate greater cultural understanding amongst the teenagers.
"The students gained the invaluable ability to work with strangers to complete set tasks. They forged great relationships and educated each other about their personal experiences and the stresses related to growing up in a period of great teenage uncertainty," Paul said.
Paul hopes the City-Country Partnerships collaboration will provide students with the opportunity to "walk in the shoes of another".
"Our students definitely educated Carinity's students about what it means to be indigenous and how easy it is to misunderstand each other coming from different backgrounds and experiences," he said.
