Karalundi Aboriginal Education Community Annual Report
Contextual Information about the School and Student Body
Karalundi Aboriginal Education Community (KAEC) is situated about 56 km north of the nearest town
of Meekatharra which intern is around 770 km from Perth. Karalundi is small oasis at the edge of the
Western Desert Region.
KAEC is a community were all the staff employed at the school resides on the school property. On
the property are the school buildings, boarding dormitories, residential houses, garage and
maintenance buildings, a caravan park with two motel units, a separate cooking area, shower/
toilet/washing block, a small shop and a farm which supports sheep, chooks and a citrus orchard.
Karalundi students come from many indigenous communities from all over the state of WA. At the
beginning and end of every term busses travel to Jigalong (560km), Wiluna (230km) and
Meekatharra (55km) to pick up and return students and to develop relationships with the Aboriginal
communities. Other students come from places as distant as Kalgoorlie, Port Hedland and
Kunanurra.
Students from the more local communities tend to want to visit their families as regularly as possible
as their needs for family support are noticeably stronger than their perceived need for education.
This can create problems as their frequent absences often inhibit their potential to build a ‘strong’
foundation academically.
Karalundi is seeking to address this problem through organised activities that strengthen
relationships and build lifelong friendships. Mobile phones also can assist students to cope with
home sickness.
Workforce Composition-Teacher standards and qualifications
Karalundi’s workforce is in the vicinity of thirty workers. These include academic staff, office staff
and ancillary staff. Ancillary staff are employed as Dorm Parents, Essential Services personnel,
Kitchen and Grounds staff. Employment for nine indigenous staff is supported by the relevant
government department and these positions include 4 AEW’s (Aboriginal Education Workers),
Grounds, Kitchen, Dorm personnel and Essential Services. These aboriginal workers provide an
insight into the workings of indigenous culture and support other staff in gaining a broader
understanding of their implications.
Student Enrolment Numbers for 2014
The transitory nature of students that come from Karalundi from isolated communities at a long
distance from the school means that it is harder to track the attendance of each and every individual
student. Karalundi is looking at ways to encourage distant students to return and continue their
education. One of these ways is to communicate with the parents and relatives personally or by
phone to solicit their help. Information about the importance of education for the students future is
expressed and the benefits of education outlined. Other relatives that have already seen the
advantages of education for their students also communicate with these parents. Slowly the parents
are beginning to see some of the advantages for their children and the coming generations and are
encouraging their children to be educated.
On average, students have an attendance rate of approximately 75-80%. While this figure may be
seen as reasonably good, the student’s frequent absences still impacts on their ability to develop a
solid platform on which all subsequent learning takes place. Student intelligence per see is not being
questioned, but any student in any school anywhere in Australia who is absent from school for
extended periods of time will not achieve results like others will if they spend more time at school.
Primary Enrolments
Term
Pre-Year 1
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Year 7
Primary Total
Male
1
1
1
2
1
0
2
6
14
Female
1
1
0
0
1
2
3
4
12
Total
2
2
1
2
2
2
5
10
26
Secondary Enrolments
Year
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
Year 12
Secondary Total
Male
3
3
3
1
1
25
Female
4
9
4
2
0
31
7
12
7
3
1
56
Student Outcomes in National testing (NAPLAN)
Karalundi students continue to be disadvantaged by this style of test where proficiency in reading is
paramount for the students to actually understand what answer to give. This style of testing
highlights what our students can’t do easily instead of highlighting their skills in more concrete forms
of self expression. Multiple intelligences where students natural learning styles are given
opportunity to be displayed are negated so as to achieve a ‘benchmark’ where all students results
are compared ‘so called’ equally. One only has to converse with the students to realise that they are
quite intelligent and have a totally different skill set to the majority of Australian students.
The following table displaying the students NAPLAN results reveals the stated difficulty.
NAPLAN Results for 2014
Parent and Teacher Satisfaction with the School.
Karalundi was established by the aboriginal community elders so as to educate their children and
grandchildren in ways in which they were educated. Karalundi is regarded as ‘their school’, but in
recent years it has been felt that the school doesn’t have enough presence in their particular
communities and this will have to be addressed in 2015 so that this sense of ownership is again
developed.
Students overall enjoy the schools program. They engage in, ”Workline”, activities to earn money to
be able to buy for themselves clothing and also small treats from the school shop or to save their
money for more lasting items. Students have planned sporting activities after dinner to give them
exercise and meaningful activity before going to get ready for sleep.
A number of staff chose to take employment elsewhere throughout the year and some of this was
due to issues such as isolation from family and a general inability to cope professionally. Many
people don’t appreciate the demands that such a place as Karalundi places on people from all walks
of life and it is not until a person ‘walks in their shoes’ that a real understanding is obtained. Suffice
to say that we should all be grateful for the variety of people who feel ‘called by God’ to come and
give it their ‘best shot’.
I have suggested the following:

That we seek newly retired teachers from W.A. to form a roster so that respite can be given
to the teaching staff in the middle of the term. This respite would be simply to have another
qualified teacher to work at the teacher’s direction with students that need additional one
to one help.

That, with the assistance of Avondale College Teacher Training Staff students from the
college be encourage to do their practice teaching at Karalundi and to offer positions to
those who are suitable and who liked the experience.

The current Principal is working in2015 towards bringing 2 committed SDA teachers from
Fiji.
The Karalundi Aboriginal Education Community Executive has agreed to offer more incentives and to
increase the salary of teaching and ancillary staff in an attempt to be able to hold teachers for a
longer period.
School Income
The vast majority of Karalundi’s income comes from the funding generated by each student
attending school. The Federal Government gives a particular amount for every primary student but
the most funds are given for a secondary student who boards at the school. Other funds come from
grants given by AISWA (Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia) but these grants
have to be spent on the specific reason that they were given. Examples of this are Literacy and
Numeracy Grants that are spent on English and Maths (in the region of $20 000). Other grants cover
the interstate camp that the senior secondary students go on etc.
A little of Karalundi’s income is derived from the shop and eggs, but the vast majority is obtained
from the Federal Government, without whose support Karalundi couldn’t continue to operate. It has
suggested that Karalundi needs to look to the Adventist Business Association, the local mining
interests who will employ some of the students from Karalundi, private donors and the Adventist
Church to start to develop ways of changing this income base so that the school can survive when
Government funding becomes less.
Funding Sources
Income Source
2014
2013
Investment income
42,387
19,551
Abstudy and fees
249,995
239,096
2,520,323
2,146,223
161,683
167,065
Grant Funding
Industries/ ancillary activities
Other
232,198
402,893
Total
3,206,586
2,974,829