The elite southeast Qld school you’ve never heard of

A tiny southeast Queensland school judged a “standout” in a recent education award is under pressure to expand its innovative learning program to welcome more students, but the principal says they may continue to keep numbers low.

Hymba Yumba Indigenous school, Springfield – Photo Supplied

A tight-knit Queensland Indigenous school is at a fork in the road.

The Hymba Yumba Independent School, at Springfield, was opened in 2011 with 50 students.

Now, there are just 250 jarjums (students) and despite persistent interest from some of the state’s top private colleges, the principal says Hymba Yumba may decide to keep numbers low.

The Innovative Schools 2020 Award this month recognised Hymba Yumba for being a “standout school”.

The school, one of a handful of Indigenous schools in Queensland, was commended for its teaching approaches, learning spaces and curriculum design.

Principal Peter Foster said Hymba Yumba was the only First Nations school in Australia on the list as part of The Educator’s sixth annual Innovative Schools awards.

The performance of the school has attracted interest from pupils at Brisbane Grammar School, The Southport School, St Joseph’s Nudgee College, Brisbane Girls Grammar and St Hilda’s.

“We are bursting at the seams in terms of enrolments,” Mr Foster said.

“A lot of students from big private schools are applying to come here.

“We even run a coach service where we bring in the kids from Brisbane and Ipswich.

“Sometimes large schools don’t cater for the specific needs of Indigenous students and the way that they learn, and aren’t acknowledging or working with their culture within the curriculum, and therefore the higher-level academic students that want to have both of those, they end up coming here.

Hymba Yumba Independent School student Pania Thomsen-Kingi with Empower Assistance Dog 'Akuna'. Picture: Richard Walker

“They believe within themselves that they have to understand their own culture to create change in the world going forward and that’s why they want to come here, so they can have both sides of the coin.

“We also have a program where the older students tutor the younger ones.

“It’s smaller groups, like families with a teacher in charge to mentor the children.”

Mr Foster said there were opportunities for students in years 11 and 12 to follow tertiary pathways while completing an ATAR.

“Three of our jarjums are currently doing university degrees while completing their schooling; our jarjums believe they can achieve anything they put their minds to, this is wonderful,” he said.

“Or they can work, do traineeships or follow vocational pathways and achieve so much more while understanding Indigenous culture, and what the history and practicalities of Indigenous culture are for the environment, sustainability and for the future.”

Mr Foster said students were taught to focus on respect for themselves, their elders, family, and their community and country.

Hymba Yumba Indigenous school, Springfield – Photo Supplied

The school caters for students from Prep to year 12. A new $3.5m STEAM building (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) will be completed soon and will enhance the education experience for students.

But a decision is yet to be made on whether the facility would expand or remain a tight-knit community.

“We’ll be pretty much on waiting lists coming into 2021 until we decide what direction we’re going,” Mr Foster said.

“We’ll be looking at refurbishing our current building to a 21st century learning space and then we’re looking at another building stage three after that.”

Mr Foster said the waiting list was already long enough that he could divide some classes up and increase the number of streams in the grade, but at the moment he was “holding firm”.

“At this point when we get to 2021 it will be difficult to enter our school,” he said.

Mr Foster said the school was established to create an educational system that offered diversity for students and to ingrain Indigenous culture into students’ lives.

While it has always been classified as an independent school, it began as a system that provided streamline and cultural education for disadvantaged and Indigenous children, with a lack of schools in the area offering classes with an Indigenous focus.

“We embed Indigenous knowledge in all of our curriculum and what we do,” Mr Foster said.

Hymba Yumba has remained an Indigenous-majority, with 80 per cent of pupils Indigenous, and 20 per cent non-Indigenous.

Mr Foster has been with the school for 12 months.

“It has been fantastic, thoroughly enjoyable, we’ve achieved a great amount this year,” he said.

Hymba Yumba was established to provide a streamlined and cultural education for disadvantaged and Indigenous students. Picture: Supplied

A typical day at Hymba Yumba begins with a morning yarning circle.

“We hold vertical groups from years 7-12 and they have a yarning circle to start the day, and that’s a check-in on their own wellbeing, what their goals are for the day, what they’re going to achieve and any needs anybody has,” he said.

“Students who have any trauma are having far less difficulties, where in previous years they would have a lot; that’s gone down 95 per cent.”

Co-curricular classes, including sport, self-development awareness classes as well as bunji (men) and tidda (women) business sessions were also held twice a week.

“We have rugby, touch football, basketball, we have diving programs with the Queensland Academy of Sport, a whole range of co-curricular programs that are part of what we do, as well as art which is big for us,” Mr Foster said.

“Our murals and Indigenous art are some of the best in the country.

“We very much link with the community, parents, Indigenous elders as well as our students and friends of the school – a community raises a child.”

With a strong focus on arts and science, the school has a much-loved dog therapy program which has resulted in Hymba Yumba becoming a dog training school in partnership with Empower Assistance Dogs Australia.

Mr Foster said labrador retrievers Akuna and Cheddar helped the students develop a sense of responsibility and empathy towards each other.

“We have students collaborating with countries all across the world weekly in their education and working with students overseas in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hymba Yumba students and teachers have collaborated on a large mural, which is now being commissioned by Queensland Rail to be installed at the local train station.