Last week Mrs Clift, Mrs Daujotis and I had the great pleasure of attending and participating in the 2018 International Metropolis Conference at the International Conference Centre, Darling Harbour. This is an annual conference that is held in different cities each year.

This annual four-day conference brings together academics, policy makers, and leaders of charities and not-for-profit organisations from around the world. The purpose of the conference is to facilitate these people from all corners of the globe to share recent research and successful programs in particular areas under a particular theme.

Each conference has a different theme and this year’s theme was ‘Global Migration’. Auburn North was one of only four schools selected to present at this year’s conference.

On behalf our school’s students, staff and parents Mrs Clift, Mrs Daujotis and I wrote and presented a paper titled ‘Auburn North Public School – An Australian Multicultural Success Story’. During the presentation members of the audience from around the world applauded when we shared some of our school’s successes and one member of the audience said ‘Auburn North’s presentation has been the shining light of this year’s conference’.

Mrs Clift, Mrs Daujotis and I thought you may be interested in some of the information we presented on your behalf so please find below some extracts from our paper.

‘Auburn North Public School –

An Australian MULTICULTURAL Success Story

Auburn North Public School’s teachers, students and parents believe their school is an Australian multicultural success story because they know all members of their school learning community:

• have equal rights and opportunities;
• are regarded as very important and feel very important and successful; and
• live and learn together in perfect harmony.

Auburn North’s Theme is that we are the school that provides ‘The Best of All Worlds’. This theme means that we come to Auburn North from all around the world to learn what we consider to be one of life’s most important lessons. That lesson is that regardless of a person’s cultural background, religion or colour we are all essentially the same. We all want to live happy, peaceful and successful lives.

Our school and everything we do is underpinned by our six Values of Respect, Friendship, Fairness, Kindness, Honesty and Responsibility, and our trusting and mutually respectful relationships.

Auburn North is acknowledged as an outstanding model of successful multiculturalism, social cohesion and unity, including being selected to receive three prestigious NSW Minister of Education ‘Cohesive Community School Awards’ for promoting cohesive communities and developing social harmony and unity.’                                  

A number of television journalists have visited Auburn North to produce reports about our multicultural school and the way in which it embodies everything that is great about our multicultural nation. In his news report, one reporter declared “Auburn North is humming in harmony.”

Evidence demonstrates that our learning community has successfully:

• enabled all students to achieve outstanding emotional, social and academic outcomes;
• assisted all students learn and live one of life’s most important lessons; and successfully
• laid the foundation for them to grow into happy, well-adjusted adults who are leading by example and helping to make Australia a more compassionate, understanding, cohesive and harmonious multicultural nation.

As proud members of the Auburn North family for at least the past 14 years we have experienced the great joy of watching a whole generation of delightful young Auburn North students grow into healthy, respectful, happy and successful Australian adults.

We believe two of the main reasons for the development of these successful individual students and this outstanding generation of successful young adults are that they have attended our multicultural school:

1. where all community members take pride in celebrating their own cultures and each other’s cultures every single day; and which has
2. utilised an integrated approach to facilitate the emotional, social and academic development of all students because at Auburn North we believe educational progress and emotional wellbeing are mutually dependent.

Our school has developed and implemented a broad range of highly successful student welfare programs and extra-curricula programs to meet the emotional and social needs of our students. At the same time, we have implemented programs and strategies to maximise student learning outcomes, which has always been Auburn North’s top priority.

Educational programs and strategies that have assisted our students become very successful learners include:

• All teachers using Auburn North’s award-winning Instructional Teaching Model to collaboratively develop high quality teaching and learning programs, and using the teaching strategies that research shows have greatest effect on student learning such as explicit teaching and feedback.
• Morning tiered K-6 New Arrivals Literacy support programs that involve students who have limited English skills participating in small group learning that is facilitated by specialist teachers two hours every morning five days per week.
• Targeted intervention for students requiring additional support.
• Community Language Classes where students continue to learn their first language.

According to quantitative and qualitative data our students have developed outstanding social, emotional and academic skills. Evidence includes:

• 85%-90% of students achieving our values-based gold badge and principal morning tea level rewards each year.
• Approximately 90% of K-6 students each year achieving school Literacy and numeracy Targets with remaining students being strongly supported by ILPs and specialist support teachers.
• In our annual national literacy and numeracy tests or, NAPLAN as we call them:
  • our Year 3 and 5 students outperforming all Similar types of schools and All schools, including those with students and parents from the most advantaged backgrounds, in all 10 literacy and numeracy areas.
  • achieving in the top 5-10% of all NSW schools in terms of student learning growth.

Auburn North has probably achieved one of the highest levels of parent involvement of any school in NSW if not Australia. This is a major reason why we believe our public school is an Australian multicultural success story.

We have successfully facilitated parent involvement for two main reasons. The reasons are:

1. Studies have shown parent involvement in their children’s education has a significant positive effect on their children’s academic success. Henderson explained that ‘ …when parents are involved, children do better in school, and they go to better schools’; and secondly
2. Many of our parents want to be involved in their children’s education and want to develop their ability to assist their children’s learning.

We have strategically empowered our parents to be significant contributors to their children’s education and to the success of our multicultural school. Our school learning community has developed a welcoming and inclusive culture for our parents. All members of staff have used their communication skills to strengthen parent partnerships and used their personal and interpersonal skills to develop trusting and mutually-respectful relationships with all parents.

We have implemented a comprehensive program of school, family and community partnerships with activities linked to school goals that have strengthened families, invigorated community support, and improved each student’s emotional, social and learning outcomes.

At the same time, we have drawn on our parents’ commitment to develop their knowledge and skills to enable them to assist their children’s learning, and taken advantage of the way our parents value education and how they respect teachers to assist our students love school, love learning, and become successful learners and successful young people.

We would like to briefly explain two of our most successful programs for parents.

The first program is our Schools as Community Centres program or, our ‘Harmony House’ programs. Harmony House has been a home-away-from-home for hundreds of our parents. It is a place where our parents feel supported and connected to their learning community and to the much wider community.

Our Harmony House programs are offered in the education, health and wellbeing, and social, cultural and recreation areas.

Educational programs include differentiated, small group English classes twice a week where parents are taught by qualified teachers, as well as maths classes and computer classes. These are all very popular and well-attended just like our weekly educational play-group and beginning-school-well programs, as well as classes to assist parents understand Australia’s education system.

Health and wellbeing initiatives include learn-to-swim classes, cooking classes, yoga and exercise classes, and the provision of informal individual and family support strategies.

Social, cultural and recreational programs include religious and cultural celebrations such as Eid, Diwali, International Womens’ Day, and NAIDOC celebrations, as well as excursion programs and fathers and children events.

We have also developed close links with a large number of charities and support agencies that provide invaluable assistance to our parents and their families.

I’m very proud to say that many of the parents who have participated in Harmony House programs have gone on to continue their education in tertiary institutions and secured employment. Many continue to pop into Harmony House when they are not working because they all know:

‘Once a member of the Auburn North family, always a member of the Auburn North family.’

The second program is our very successful ‘Parents as Partners in Learning’ program. This program has assisted all parents develop the confidence and skills to assist their children’s learning at home.

Features of this program include:

• Each small group interactive workshop is grade-based and linked to grade-based outcomes and targets, enabling parent to learn the skills and strategies to support learning at home. Focus areas have included Reading, Writing, Numeracy Operations, and Technology.
• Parents are provided with high-quality resources and games to use to assist children’s learning at home.
• Parents are able to access videos of Auburn North teaching skills 24/7 with videos of Auburn North teachers and students engaging with resources on the school website.
• Community language teachers and other interpreters are used to support parents.

Our learning community really believes our Auburn North family is an Australian multiculturalism success story and is a model for what all Australian schools should aspire to become.