Woodleigh School challenges the Adventurous Minds of students when Wugularr School and the Penbank Campus meet in Beswick

Dear Friends,

Your support of the Wugubank Partnership is immensely important to us.

This newsletter is about our recent adventure to Beswick involving Wugularr and Penbank Year 6 students. Growing from strength to strength, the Wugubank Partnership enables children to learn together.

Two-way learning at its best!

Over the years, the Wugularr mob and Penbank mob easily slip into gear when they meet. Whether it is on the Peninsula or at Beswick, it is two-way learning at its best. There is no judgement, simply so much to learn from our very diverse and amazing environments.

To see children sharing their worlds and culture, from the Bottom End to the Top End of Australia, is truly remarkable. Students explored an area known as Top Yard with Aboriginal Elder, Uncle Tango (Frankie Lane). They swam in the pure waters of the Waterhouse River system that runs through the community of Beswick and walked along its banks to see Rock Art created centuries ago by the Aboriginal people of this spectacular land. Children covered themselves in mud and danced around the rocks and the waterways. Such fun was had by all!

The Wugularr mob’s confidence has grown incredibly. At Nitmiluk the children taught the Penbank mob how to dance to prepare for a corroboree. They freely sang together and knew the songs that had been learnt in previous years. There was no shame. These were just a couple of examples that demonstrated how relationship building develops confidence and trust. It was a pleasure to see.

Education beyond and keeping connected

We are always very excited to see the Wugularr and Penbank mob get together. As students move into the secondary years, a number of them are choosing to attend school in Darwin or even in Melbourne. Recently we were very pleased to have Kenita B visit Salwyn currently living in Mt Eliza. Kenita is in Year 7 at MITS (Melbourne Indigenous Transition School) and Salwyn is past student of Woodleigh. Both Kenita and Salwyn enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with Penbank and Woodleigh friends for a Saturday BBQ.

Thank you

Special thanks are extended to David Quin for leading the Wugubank expeditions, the teachers and staff involved from both Penbank and Wugularr School, and importantly, the Beswick community for including us in their lives. It is truly a unique experience and privilege to be involved in this partnership fondly known as Wugubank!