Helen Leech Foundation Funds Wunans Dural Excellence Program

21 June 2012

Out of a pool of 1100 applicants who applied for funding from Charitable Trusts managed by Perpetual, only 166 were successful. Assessed against the parameters of strategy, outcomes, capability and leadership,  Wunan is the recipient of $80,000 to fund the Dural Excellence Program for the next 2 years. 

The Dural Education Excellence Program (DEEP) is a two year pilot and is a collaborative partnership between William Clarke College, Pacific Hills Christian School, Halls Creek District High School, Wunan and Dural Baptist Church.  The partnership is driven by the passiona nd commitment of the schools involved and the communityi organisations to work together in the cooperative delivery of the Dural Excellence Program.

This program is unique in character and is built around the provision of a supported culturally appropriate family style boarding accommodation for Halls Creek young people.  The Boarding facility is located in the Sydney suburb of Dural and provides young people from Halls Creek access to high performing Schools.  The dural Baptist Church through its large indoor sports centre and associated ministries facilitates a wide range of social, leisure and sporting options as well as educational tutoring, personal development support and pastoral care.  This program highlights educaitonal opportunities for students and their families and offers an alternative to other boarding options.  This boarding option is unique as it provides group housing for Halls Creek students with Indigenous House Parents also from Halls Creek.

This model has already shown vast improvement over the previous educaitonal boarding model used.  If successful, this model will be expanded to include other towns and communities in the East Kimberley and continue into post secondary education.

Topic: Education