Yiyili Aboriginal
Community School
(YACS) and Kulkarriya
Community School
(KCS) Aboriginal
Education Assistant
(AEA) Training and
Coaching Program
National Partnerships – Low SES Schools
Business Case
March 2011
YACS and KCS AEA Training Program
Title
Participants
Lead School
Requested Funding
Kulkarriya Community School
Yiyili Aboriginal Community School
Kulkarriya Community School and Yiyili Aboriginal Community School
$60 000
Introduction and General Overview
Kulkarriya Community School (KCS) and Yiyili Aboriginal Community School (YACS) are both strong community driven schools. Local
communities decided to create these schools and operate them themselves as educational opportunities historically meant either
long travel or relocation. These schools have proven their sustainability and have offered high quality education to local families for
more than 30 years. Given the importance of community involvement in the schools they have a strong team of Aboriginal
Education Assistants (AEAs) who work closely with classroom teachers of which there are 16 between the schools. AEA’s are
involved in collaborative planning, small group and one on one work, general teacher support, intervention and extension support,
involvement in outside of school activities and whole school planning. Our schools rely heavily on this support.
Community elders and School Boards/Committees have prioritised coaching and training of AEA’s as a way of further developing
and enhancing their ability to increase the educational outcomes of our students and future leaders.
Given our remote setting, training and coaching of staff is difficult, time consuming and expensive. There is a high need for AEA’s to
develop inter community support and training networks, access high quality professional learning and have the opportunity to be
part of a mentor/coach professional relationship.
KCS and YACS independently realised that this was a high need area and critical to the sustainability of both quality staff, who can
later use this knowledge to coach new employees themselves, and to the sustainment of increased student performance and
outcomes. It has been recognised that AEA’s have been under utilised trained and coached in previous years primarily due to lack of
funding.
We propose the use of National Partnership LOW SES funding to employ an AEA coach for 12 weeks over the next 12 months. The
coach would have both a teaching background and extensive knowledge of our communities and would have worked in our network
of schools previously. The coach would spend 6 weeks at both schools coaching and training AEA’s in the delivery of high quality,
targeted teaching and support. The project would also fund inter community professional sharing trips between the KCS and YACS
and also between different sector schools, such as St Mary’s in Broome.
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Strategic Intent
National Partnerships Reform
Action
Reform Action 1
Incentives to attract high
performing principals and
teachers
Reform Action 2:
Adoption of best practice
performance management and
staffing arrangements that
articulate a clear role for
principals
Reform Action 3:
School operational
arrangements
which encourage innovation
and flexibility
Reform Action 4:
Providing innovative and
tailored learning opportunities
Reform Action 5:
Strengthened school
accountability
Reform Action 6:
External partnerships with
parents, other schools,
businesses
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Project Strategies

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Building AEA capacity through the development of professional learning networks
It is anticipated that through coaching and training the project will be self perpetuating as
existing staff can coach/train new staff. This will lead to stronger AEA, teacher and
principal relationships which will encourage retainment and employment of high
performing staff and
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Through inter community visits and job shadowing best practice can be identified and
used as a model.
AEA coach will act as a conduit for best practice which will be modelled and embedded.

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AEA coach will set up in-school procedures for ongoing performance management
Increased capacity of AEA’s will foster high quality school and community interactions

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Inter community visits will strengthen the learning partnership between KCS and YACS.
Partnerships will be created with other learning professionals.
Participants will have increased capacity to offer other learning opportunities within the
community outside of school hours.
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and communities and the
provision of access to extended
services
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Student Outcomes, Stakeholders and Measuring Success:
Student Outcomes
AEA Outcomes
Barriers to Success
Overall Success
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Student outcomes will be measured by improvements in testing and NAPLAN scores
Increased engagement with classroom teachers and work in general
Access to professional development targeted at the needs of Indigenous students
Participation in professional learning communities with other AEA’s in similar schools and in different
sectors
The project will be evaluated and revised to ensure the knowledge is shared and procedures put in
place to facilitate this
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Stages and Milestones
Staffing
Coaching
School Vists
* Advertising and
employment of
appropriate coach.
* Consultation with
AEA's teachers and
principals at a school
level to guage current
needs and
understandings
* In school visits by
coach/mentor
* AEA's visit other
schools and job
shadow/share
knowledge
*Project plan
developed targeting
needs
Assessment
and
Sustainability
*Develop
procedures for
ongoing assessment
of the project
*Develop
procudures for
continued coaching
sharing and PL after
the program has
finsihed
Tracking
* Monitoring and
recording of student
progress
* Colllation of data
and recording of
trends etc through
data analysis
WHEN:
WHEN:
WHEN:
WHEN:
WHEN:
* As soon as
possible
* Ongoing
throughout project
* As soon as
possible
* As soon as
possible
* Ongoing
throughout project
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Roles and Responsibilities:
School Principals
Teachers
AEA’s
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Principals to lead the project collaboratively.
Principals to embed procedures and policies to ensure the sustainability of in house.
coaching/mentoring and knowledge sharing.
Allowance of time for school visits and access to PL.
Teachers will make time to plan with and support AEA’s where necessary.
Time will be available in class for project specific tasks.
Engage with coach and make themselves available to inter school visits and PL.
Commit to share knowledge and coach others
Conclusion
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