Lajamanu School given greater flexibility with new term dates

LEAVE aside sorry business and the quiet times at Lajamanu School are mostly predictable.

Indigenous traditional dance student Elijah Kelly, Choir performer Brody Patterson and Indigenous traditional Venice Wilson each performed for the school assembly.

LEAVE aside sorry business and the quiet times at Lajamanu School are mostly predictable.

They span a block of weeks through July and August in which families leave town to visit relatives, taking in regional sporting carnivals, royalty payments in Yuendumu and the Darwin and Katherine shows.

They are important dates, socially, but they leave the school decimated.

In an improbably practical solution, Lajamanu will follow the lead of Ganbalanya School and trial new term dates that have holidays matching the times of greatest travel.

Education Minister Peter Chandler visited Lajamanu yesterday to launch the new 2016 calendar amid singing, dancing and a school barbecue.

“It’s not easy to change term dates — you have bring teachers along with you, the union has to be involved ... but what excites me about this is that the community has recognised there’s an issue,” Mr Chandler said.

Terms one and two have been extended and terms three and four reduced. It means the midyear break will now finish in August, when other Territory students are already back in the classroom.

Acting Principal James Bryant said the community and school were behind the trial, which will run two years and be regularly reviewed.

“Taking the emotion out of it and just working on the mathematics, it should work,” Mr Bryant said. “Everyone’s willing to give it a go.”

Mr Chandler said Gunbalanya School began its “flexible school year” in 2012 and had seen attendance rates increase from 42.7 per cent in 2011 to 54.3 per cent last year.

“We could play hardball and say ‘no, these are the term dates, you need to get your kids to school’ but I’m a pragmatist and if that’s not going to work let’s find a method that will improve results,” he said.