Outback school that bucked the trend

MANY of its students had parents in and out of jail, brothers or sisters who were petrol sniffers, or live in homes where English is rarely spoken.

MANY of its students have had parents in and out of jail, brothers or sisters who were petrol sniffers, or live in homes where English is rarely spoken.

But Ntaria School is the unlikely success story of remote Aboriginal Australia, bucking the trend of mass educational failure with its above-average rankings on the My School website and enormous improvements in attendance, literacy and numeracy.

Ntaria School, in Hermannsburg, 130km west of Alice Springs, has resources and teachers befitting a primary school, yet as well as primary pupils, it has had to educate up to 60 secondary students.

Despite this, principal Darrell Fowler -- backed by dedicated teachers and a community determined to create a better future -- has managed in the past two years to almost double the school's enrolment.

When The Australian visited Ntaria School two years ago, Mr Fowler had been forced to drive around the community collecting chairs and tables from teachers' balconies as the school struggled for resources.

Today, the school's attempt to get equipment and other resources for its secondary school students is an ongoing battle.

Ntaria was one of a number of remote and rural schools earmarked to receive science laboratories or language centres under the Rudd government's schools stimulus package.

But the school missed out on a science lab after funds were diverted to cover a cost blowout in the $14 billion Primary Schools for the 21st Century program.

"It's unrealistic to expect to have a fully-fledged high school in a remote community, but we do need to think that if we are going to be serious about kids attending school until they are 17, we need to be able to provide something other than the primary school environment," Mr Fowler said.

Of the 18 statistically similar schools with which it was compared on the My School website, Ntaria's Year 3 students ranked top of the list in reading.

Year 5 students performed at a higher level than 16 of those schools -- some of which were in larger towns such as Alice Springs, Kalgoorlie and Port Augusta. But Ntaria's scores in reading started to decline by Years 7 and 9.

In numeracy, Ntaria School's Years 3, 5 and 9 students performed substantially above the average of most of the statistically similar schools.

Mr Fowler said comparing results across a range of very small remote schools could be deceiving, as a few high- or low-performing students could significantly skew the results.

But he put Ntaria's success down to its extraordinary increases in attendance, and also the help of charity the Bluearth Foundation, which has worked with students to overcome behaviour, self-esteem and confidence problems. Bluearth coach Rosanne Fuller said the physical and mental training in the program helped children learn to take responsibility for their behaviour.

"Out here, I've noticed a huge difference in how the kids focus, and can listen, and can be still, and be happy in that," Ms Fuller said.

"It's really designed to get kids engaged. We also try to encourage kids to think for themselves, so it's all about what they bring to school rather than being teacher-directed."

When Mr Fowler started as principal in early 2008, Ntaria had an enrolment of 112 children and 55 per cent average attendance. Last year, enrolment peaked at 203, and average attendance climbed above 80 per cent.

There are now three classes of secondary school students at Ntaria -- some of them former petrol sniffers -- adding to the pressure on resources.

Mr Fowler said that although it was pleasing to see Ntaria's students performing well in the National Assessment Plan -- literacy and numeracy tests, he would also like to see those same children have access to facilities that would give them a taste of the real world.

"Personally I don't know that getting kids up to benchmark is really going to make a great difference to their lives," Mr Fowler said. "They don't really have opportunities in front of them at this stage.

"The processes that we have had to go through to secure some of these buildings is so tied up in red tape that it is really not much use to us on the ground. From my perspective, there is a fairly narrow window in which to help these kids, and it is starting to close."