Identify and build connections

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As an educator working in the Kimberley or Pilbara, it’s vital you build meaningful relationships with, not only the children and young people you support directly, but also their caregivers, family and the broader community.

Children, young people, families and communities don’t just see you as an educator. They are also looking to find out if they can connect with you, to see if you are trustworthy, respectful and not judging them. Children and young people want to know if they are safe in the educator’s hands and that they will be accepted.

Take the time to invite connection with the children and young people you are teaching. It’s best when these relationships develop organically and authentically. For more information about this, check out the Cultural Responsiveness and School Education report by Menzies School of Health Research.

You'd be more aware than most that children and young people have an innate ability to see through superficial attempts at building relationships. It’s helpful to share a bit about yourself with your class, such as personal interests and skills.

For example, an educator in Roebourne played guitar for the class. The students were able to see them as more than their teacher because they shared interests beyond their professional persona. A Jigalong educator used their computer screensaver to share photos of their pets and school holiday adventures. This fostered more meaningful connections between the educator and students and started a conversation about how they spent their holidays.

By being willing to share a bit about yourself, you invite connection and the opportunity to build trust and meaningful relationships.

In smaller, close-knit communities, educators are more likely to see students and families outside the school environment when compared with large cities. It’s important you are open to speaking with students, their caregivers and families during your own day-to-day activities, such as grocery shopping.

This is an opportunity to show an interest in the child or young person’s life beyond the school walls. You can also give them positive feedback in front of their family or caregivers if you meet in these informal settings.  A Newman educator volunteered with local sports organisations and was able to see students “in their element”, giving the educator a chance to praise their abilities outside the school environment.

While it’s useful to be open to engaging with children, families and caregivers outside school hours, this can be overwhelming. Be You has a range of resources and tools you can use to support your own social and emotional wellbeing. For more information check out the Be You Wellbeing tools for educators.

It’s important to develop an understanding of the whole child or young person. This includes their cultural background and associated traditions and practices, their family background and circumstances at home, the local history of the place they are from, but also where they live now. These can all affect how a student presents in the classroom and their readiness to engage in learning.

If you consider these intersecting factors, you may be able to form a well-rounded, empathetic understanding of the child or young person and identify the best ways to engage them and support their social and emotional wellbeing. You may then be better positioned to speak with students and their caregivers about this, if needed, but through a lens of respect and compassion. For more information about how intersecting factors can affect social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal children and young people, check out the Working Together resource developed by the Kulunga Research Network.

Aboriginal and Islander Education Officers (AIEO) and Aboriginal Teaching Assistants (ATA) play an important role in growing your understanding, as they can help bridge the gap between educators and community members. Working in partnership with AIEOs and ATAs will give you insight about when to involve a student’s support network and bring in other agencies and informal supports.

It’s important to create a space to notice when things have changed for a child or young person and have established relationships where you as an educator can speak openly with students, their caregivers and their family.

Aboriginal children may be reluctant to talk about things that are worrying them, due to ingrained concerns about the shame and stigma of ‘mental health issues’ and fear that others in their close-knit community will hear about them. It may be a more helpful approach to focus more on their social and emotional wellbeing.

If you are concerned about a child, you can download the Behaviour, Emotions, Thoughts, Learning and Social Relationships (BETLS) Observation Tool from the Be You website to record observations. You can also check out Wellbeing tools for children and young people on the Be You website, which includes helpful links and resources for children and young people.

When engaging families and caregivers, it’s important to note that they may have barriers to entering a school or talking to educators. This could be for a range of reasons. Some Aboriginal people may mistrust schools, seeing them as symbols of colonisation and assimilation. Some traditional desert men may see schools as a women and children’s space.

Family members and caregivers may feel unwelcome due to their own school experiences or the behaviour of previous educators in your learning community. For example, ‘fly in, fly out’ educators who didn’t engage with the community, ones who demanded respect without earning it or who treated family members as ignorant.

This is why it’s vital to work with AIEOs and ATAs to make your learning community a welcoming and culturally inclusive space. The ‘Provide flexible, culturally responsive education’ and ‘Cultural Actions’ sections of this resource will help you do this. For more information about communicating effectively, check out the Be You Fact Sheet Communication skills for educators.

Work from a place of knowing that everyone wants the best for children and young people to live happy, healthy and safe lives.

Where meaningful relationships, based on mutual respect and understanding, are created between educators and children – and their caregivers, family and community – the students will be more likely to open up to educators about things that are worrying them.

Scroll through the suggested actions below and consider whether they can be adapted or contextualised for your learning community and included in your Be You Action Plan. How can these actions be most effective? We encourage you to consider the following steps to help increase the effectiveness of whole-setting actions:

1. Consult with members of the learning community, particularly Aboriginal and Islander Education Officers or Aboriginal Teaching Assistants, to develop and agree on the best approach. You could also seek input from the wider community, including Elders, families or caregivers, health and community services.
2. Tailor actions to meet the needs of your learning community. For example, modify or contextualise actions to suit the age and demographics of the children or young people in your care.
3. Regularly review and revisit actions to check their effectiveness and to drive continuous improvement.

Identifying and building connections in practice

• Work with the students to identify who they are, where they come from and how they see themselves in the world. This will support students to feel seen as a whole individual.
• Use photographs and multimedia to share family relationships, interests, places visited, or favourite sporting teams to invite connection.
• Facilitate lessons outside the school walls in spaces where community members are present and where experiential learning can take place. This could include working on a project with local councils, where students map out a piece of land, plan for a park that they would like to see created on this space and have these proposals considered by the council. Students could then work as a group on the winning proposal.
• Encourage Elders to come into the learning community and participate in cultural activities within the school. This could include leading days of significance, storytelling, and smoking ceremonies.
• Develop ongoing communication strategies with caregivers and families, that focus on the positive activities in the classroom. This could include monthly catch-up conversations, emails or text messages to the caregivers and families.
• Send a monthly newsletter by email and hard copy, to caregivers and families, including videos and photos showing class activities and highlighting class achievements.
• Create a buddy bench or friendship chair that encourages students to connect with others in the playground.
• Schedule regular home visits, where appropriate. These visits should focus on the achievements and efforts of the child or young person, rather than behaviour and results alone. Home visits can support building strong relationships with families and caregivers. 
• As shame can be a significant barrier to a student’s personal growth, create a process which allows children or young people to ask for help within the classroom in an inconspicuous way. This might include placing an object on their desk to alert the educator they need help.
• Enquire if there are local community members willing and able to perform a smoking ceremony at the start of the school year or term, and ask families to join. For many Aboriginal people smoking ceremonies can help to cleanse an environment or in certain locations, to welcome people to a space.
• Recognise days of local and national significance including the Pilbara Strike, NAIDOC Week, Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week. This could include having an event or an art competition.
• Create a term calendar of cultural events, activities and seasons and display it in the classroom. There are six seasons in the Kimberley. You could also promote an existing Aboriginal seasons calendar that depicts the local weather patterns, flora and fauna availability as well as traditional ecological knowledge.
• Establish positive relationships and praise when you see children or young people, their families and caregivers in an informal setting outside the school environment. 
• Approach community Elders to provide cultural supervision for AIEOs and ATAs.
• Actively involve caregivers or family members in the decision-making process for any matter relating to the child or young person. Fostering the student’s social and emotional wellbeing should be a team effort. 
• Include community members in storytelling activities with staff and students offering both traditional and more modern stories promoting local Aboriginal cultures. This may include reading stories in local languages to promote a bilingual environment. 
• Determine a shared contextualised, culturally responsive understanding of what social and emotional wellbeing means within the school and community. 
• Invite the community to special events or celebrations within the learning environment. An example of a special event is the Pilbara Fashion Show.
• Support young people to seek out and engage in opportunities outside school, for example, job interviews, life skills, art exhibitions, scholarships.
• Create an induction/familiarisation package for new families when they enrol their first child.
• Be approachable. Families or caregivers may not want to book an appointment to talk, preferring less formal engagement. Non-confrontational questions like “Are you doing anything?” “Is it ok if ..?” “Are you busy later?” help set this space in a culturally responsive manner. 
• Take the time to build a relationship with AIEOs/ATAs, recognise the value they bring into the school and the knowledge of the community they hold. Don’t talk down to them - make them the cup of tea!
• If a child or young person engages you in a confidential conversation, you need to ensure they understand you can’t maintain confidentiality if they are at risk. You must document the conversation if there is a perceived risk.
• Encourage mum and bubs playgroups to come into the learning community to build relationships.
• Promote special events at the school through flyers, on noticeboards and word-of-mouth.
• Consider incorporating community-led programs and incentives designed to encourage positive school attendance. 
• Organise/attend events where students and families can meet with health care service providers and collectively discuss issues that can affect a young person’s wellbeing.
• Attend the annual Reconciliation Ball or family fun day, hosted by the Shire of East Pilbara during Reconciliation Week.
• Attend Elders’ birthday celebrations in Roebourne.
• Attend Martu community events.
• Volunteer with the YMCA Remote Schools Attendance Strategy buses in Newman. 
• Create an Aboriginal Educators Cultural Group within schools and communities who can work with Elders to promote Aboriginality and cultural recognition within their learning space.
• Host a disco for all students in a region/learning cluster to come together. 
• Assess the preferred and most effective ways to engage with different families and caregivers. This may be through texting, a newsletter or a face-to-face conversation.
• Organise community fundraising events, such as family fun days, to raise money for school excursions and/or equipment.

The art featured on this page is by Tyrown Waigana and Kevin Wilson.