No subjects, no bells, no fees – Compass Catholic Community at Davoren Park celebrates success
It’s the free Adelaide school that doesn’t have bells, uniforms or even classes – and offers meals on the house. And it’s thriving.
Education
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Twelve months ago, Jacqueline Raymond spotted an information booth while walking with her sister through the Munno Para Shopping Centre.
The stand was promoting a new school in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, Compass Catholic Community, with the slogans “no uniforms”, “no bells”, “no subjects”, “no fees” and “free childminding”.
For Ms Raymond, a 24-year-old single mother of two who finished secondary school without obtaining SACE in Year 12, it would be a transformative moment.
“I started talking to the two people on the booth and they took me through what Compass was all about,” she said.
“They explained how it was for people aged 17 to 24 who hadn’t finished education for whatever reason and who wanted help to do something about it.
“They said there would be no subjects, no bells, no uniforms, free breakfast every day, flexible learning and free childcare.”
As someone who always had wanted to become a school support worker, Ms Raymond was sold on the idea.
Several months later she became one of the first students to turn up with her toddler daughter, Amelia, when the new school opened in the backstreets of Davoren Park in January.
“I came here just to get my SACE,” she said last week.
“Instead I’ve almost finished my SACE and got my Certificate One in hospitality and Certificate One, Certificate Two, Certificate Three and Certificate Four in educational support.”
The achievements of Ms Raymond and her fellow students are a source of immense satisfaction for Catholic Education SA director Dr Neil McGoran, who was a driving force in the establishment of Compass.
A former principal and SACE chief executive, he was aware several years ago that, on average, there were an estimated 2000 children and teenagers in the northern suburbs not regularly attending school.
This was borne out by a Productivity Commission report published this month that showed one third of Australian children were not regularly turning up at school.
Dr McGoran has a firm belief that students must feel like they belong at schools if they are going to keep attending.
“There are some for whom school is a challenge or school is not working suitably to be able to make them thrive, so how do you respond to that?” he said.
“The obvious way is you try to do something about all schools so they better meet the needs of kids.
“Whilst working on that, there is an opportunity to respond with a particular type of schooling that might meet those young people with where they are at.”
Dr McGoran said this had led to the creation of Compass, the second special-assistance school in Adelaide to be established to deal exclusively with 17- to 24-year-olds.
The school not only provides free education, it also supplies free food, childcare, showers and laundry facilities for those who have struggled to attend school for a multitude of reasons.
A communal breakfast is cooked each morning in a commercial kitchen and served in a common room with all students and staff attending
Principal Kelly Bunyon said Jacqueline was among 80 students who had thrived since joining Compass since its opening earlier this year.
The cohort was an eclectic mix with one thing in common – none had completed their education while they were legally required to attend school until the age of 18.
They included several single mothers whose children attend the school’s childcare centre, youths with anxiety or depression, others with histories of substance abuse and many who were homeless.
One young father with poor literacy had enrolled so he could learn to read to his child.
A former defence lawyer in the Youth Court who retrained as a teacher, Ms Bunyon said how Compass was attempting to help them was “different in lots of practical ways”.
“We are a learning community, this is a deliberate unpackaging of school,” she said.
“The focus here is still on completing your SACE, having opportunities to do VET and growing those key capabilities around who you are as a person, those 21st century skills.
“But it is done in a way that the student is driving so our catchphrase here is ‘choose your way’.”
Ms Bunyon said the central objective of Compass was enabling students “to build their own capacity to take control of their own lives”.
“The program supports this by having one teacher for 12 students and one learning supporter who is a social worker or counsellor for every 20 students,” she said.
Ms Bunyon said a key strategy employed by the school was the abandonment of traditional teaching methods to enable its students to obtain SACE.
“We don’t teach in classes, we don’t teach in subjects, we teach in projects,” she said.
“A teacher will meet with a young person and ask them where they want to do, what are their challenges. The floor is theirs really, they can choose anything.
“It’s not a free for all though. It is a learning environment for adults.”
Ms Bunyon said the various young people who had enrolled in the school had arrived with different objectives.
“Some of our young people come in with a really clear pathway,” she said.
“They want to be a nurse, they want to finish their SACE, they want specific things.
“Some come in saying: ‘I don’t know, I am really lost, school hasn’t worked for me, I don’t know what to do next.’
One example was a young man who had no project in mind but liked gardening. Staff suggested he build a vegetable planting box for the school’s childcare centre as a SACE research project.
Ms Bunyon said the school’s staff supported students to develop plans to achieve their objectives while working towards SACE.
“SACE is really important educationally, of course, but it is also really important to our cohort,” she said.
“These young people want to finish school, that is really important to them. They want to graduate from high school.”
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