Haileybury Rendall School celebrates Indigenous graduate numbers

A Top End school is ‘revitalising’ education for remote Indigenous students and has celebrated another increase in graduates this year.

One of the country’s leading private schools is celebrating its largest cohort of NT Indigenous graduates ever.

Thirteen Indigenous students will receive their NTCET from Haileybury Rendall School in 2023.

Graduate Quenton Brooking said he would begin a career in youth work in the coming year.

Mr Brooking left his Derby, WA community to board at Haileybury, and said it was the “toughest part of studying” but it enabled him to build a “stable future”.

“Completing Year 12 has given me more opportunities to look for work,” he said.

“Being away from family was hard but being able to call them helped with that and I enjoyed sitting with the boys at school and yarning.

“I feel good about graduating.”

Haileybury Rendall School graduate Quenton Brooking

Principal Andrew McGregor said he was pleased to see the number of Indigenous students graduating from Haileybury increase.

“One of the reasons Haileybury Rendall School took over from Kormilda College was to revitalise educational opportunities for remote Indigenous kids,” he said.

“To have 11 boarders go through the system and complete Year 12 and be successful is brilliant, we’re clearly making a step towards closing the gap.”

Mr McGregor said the graduates who had boarded with the school came from communities in Timber Creek, Borroloola, Katherine, Groote Eylandt, Jabiru, Santa Teresa, the Tiwi Islands and Papunya.

Haileybury Rendall School principal Andrew McGregor.

He said he had watched the kids step into leadership positions as role models for younger students who were boarding from remote communities, helping them deal with homesickness “because they’ve been through it all themselves”.

“That’s a big deal because every community has a different culture, different language, different traditions, and to all come together in our school, they’ve learned about the other communities and a lot of the who kids have become really good friends have visited other communities that they wouldn’t have otherwise.”