Education

A solid educational foundation for the East Kimberley

Wunan strongly supports the development of a solid educational background for young Aboriginal people in the East Kimberley Region. We deliver a number of programs that focus on laying a strong foundation of early education while providing the opportunities and support for higher education and career development.

Kimberley Excellence Education Program (KEEP) Mid-Year Secondary Scholarships

Applications NOW OPEN!

KEEP gives young Aboriginal people from the Kimberley access to a high-quality education, a supportive environment and an extensive range of extracurricular opportunities!

Applications close on the Friday 29th of September, 2023!

Please share amongst your family, with friends and your networks.

To download our application form and email us with the supporting documents.

Our Education Programs and Services

Child and Parent Centres (CPC)

Wunan delivers the Child and Parent Centres (CPC) in Halls Creek and Kununurra are an opportunity for local parents and their children to access parental support services within a culturally safe setting. The CPCs aim to improve the health, wellbeing, education and care for young children. Wunan aims to employ local, Indigenous employees to deliver these services to share their immense local knowledge with the parents.

Among the activities offered at the CPCs are KindiLink, Liliwuns and Little Nuggets that focus on various areas of pre-school education. In addition, the CPCs provide informal services such as counselling, pregnancy support and allied health services.

Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY)

Wunan proudly hosts the Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY).

HIPPY is an early childhood enrichment program that works with parents and carers of young children in their homes. Parents are supported by home tutors to help their preschool-age children develop their reading, writing and social skills, which helps them start school ready to learn.
Through the program, families gain confidence in their ability to nurture their child’s learning at home, school and beyond. HIPPY also aims to strengthen communities and provides training and employment opportunities for local people. The Brotherhood of St Laurence, through HIPPY Australia, has been running the program in Australia since 1998.

Kimberley Education Excellence Program (KEEP)

KEEP is an innovative approach developed by Wunan to help young Aboriginal people from the East Kimberley to broaden their horizons and experience opportunities unavailable in their region.

The program offers students scholarships to high-performing schools in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. It is based on a model that involves a small group of students living together in a home setting with Aboriginal House Parents. This unique approach is built on the understanding that Aboriginal students do better while they are away at school if they feel connected to home and culture. In addition to school, KEEP strives to provide a well-rounded range of social, leisure and sporting experiences, as well as personal development support and pastoral care.

Wunan is currently looking at options to ensure the program is sustainable into the future with the potential acquisition of a property in which to house the students.

Parent and Community Engagement – PaCE

Wunan has been delivering the Parent and Community Engagement Program (PaCE) in Kununurra since 2011. Delivered in partnership with local schools, PaCE supports Aboriginal parents and carers with children in Kindergarten, Pre-Primary and Year 1. The program helps parents and carers develop relationships with the school and engage more in their child’s learning and development.

PaCE operates from a designated ‘Parent Room’ located on campus at Kununurra District High School. Essentially, the goal is to build and strengthen relationships between parents and teachers and to empower parents to make informed decisions relating to their child’s education. Parents are encouraged and supported to participate in group activities as well as individual sessions.

Sessions held between teaching staff, parents and the Educational Advocate who acted on behalf of the families have resulted in a better understanding of the role of the school and teachers and ultimately, an increase in parent confidence.

Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS)

Wunan delivers the Remote School Attendance (RSAS) in Halls Creek. The program employs school attendance supervisors and school attendance officers to work together with local communities improve school attendance.

The RSAS program aims to ensure that all children in the community attend school every day by supporting families, providing transportation and promoting the importance of regular school attendance among community members. The RSAS team members are local Indigenous people from the community and are able to use their connection to the people and local knowledge to achieve the program’s goal.