Mr HAMPTON - 2007-04-17
There is a buzz in education circles around Alice Springs at the moment. Can you please tell us more about the government’s initiatives to re-engage with students in learning skills with the Clontarf Football Academy?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Stuart for his question and his support for the Clontarf Football Academy. This government has made education the highest priority of our government and we acknowledge …
Mr Mills interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: The member for Blain used to be a teacher, Madam Speaker. I would have thought that, in managing his class, he would have actually talked to students who constantly interrupted when somebody was speaking. I just ask for some manners. The member for Stuart used to be …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Please continue, minister.
Mr HENDERSON: Madam Speaker, I am sure the good people of Alice Springs want to hear some good news as opposed to interjections from the member for Blain. We know the huge challenges in literacy and numeracy across the Northern Territory, and improving the literacy and numeracy and educational outcomes of our indigenous students. Alice Springs, as we all know, has had their own challenges – but we have listened.
Late last year, I had a meeting with a gentleman by the name of Mr Gerard Neesham in my electorate office in Darwin. He came to visit me to talk about the Clontarf Football Academy that he had established in a number of places in Western Australian. Gerard Neesham, for those people who follow their football, was the first coach of Fremantle Dockers AFL team …
Madam SPEAKER: Excuse me, minister, would the person whose mobile phone just rang please turn the phone off.
Mr HENDERSON: He has coached a lot of indigenous football talent from the Northern Territory and knows the Territory very well. He came across and was extraordinarily convincing to me regarding the outcomes that such a football academy could achieve in Alice Springs, both in the philosophy and the results to date.
It is not about football, it is about education. If you look at what the academy has achieved in Western Australia in the six years or so it has been operating, over 80% of those students who have enrolled in the academy have gone on to achieve completion of Year 12 - 80% of those students have actually been transitioned into a job. It is about completing Year 12, it is about getting a job, and it is now up and running for the first term in Alice Springs. It is a tripartite arrangement between the Northern Territory government, the federal government and local business.
I hosted a lunch, which the member for Stuart and the member for Nhulunbuy, the Deputy Chief Minister attended, with business people from Alice Springs just a month ago, where I and Gerard Neesham made a presentation about the academy and encouraged the business community of Alice Springs to participate, to donate financially, and also work with the academy to find pathways for young people into jobs. There has been a very strong response and I congratulate the business community of Alice Springs for getting behind this particular program.
Currently, nine weeks in, 170 young people are attending the academy across three campuses: ANZAC Hill, Alice Springs High and Yirara College. Just last night, I had the opportunity to have a couple of beers with some of the footballers from the academy who are working with the students at Alice Springs High and Yirara College. What they were telling me last night was that the attendance rate of those students in the classroom at Yirara College for the first term had been the strongest they have been for 14 years. If we look at attendance rates for those 170 young people at ANZAC Hill and Alice Springs High, there is around 90% attendance compared to 40% attendance before.
You are not going to complete Year 12 unless you are in the classroom every day. What this program is about is, these mentors who support and develop the young kids football talent also go and follow them into the classroom. They support these students in the classroom, ensure that they are engaged and are focused on what is being taught to them. We are seeing some strong results. Next year, the academy is going to extend to senior years at Centralian College. Already, in the first term of operation, a number of the young students and the players have visited primary schools in Alice Springs to give our primary school students a real aspiration.
The features of the academy are around enrolment and attendance of students in school - that is the main feature - along with inter-school football competitions, fitness and health, literacy and numeracy, employability skills of graduates, and job prospects with supportive businesses. This is a significant investment in the youth of Alice Springs that I am absolutely certain will deliver fantastic results in years to come. It is going to make an enormous difference to the lives of many indigenous young men in Alice Springs, based on the Western Australian example. There is no reason why it cannot happen here.
We have 170 students enrolled in this program at the moment. On previous attendance and enrolment figures, we would probably be lucky to see 20% of those students going on, reaching and completing their NTCE. With this program, around 140-plus of those students are going to get their NTCE and will get a job. This is going to grow in Alice Springs; it is a significant investment. It is a good news story. I ask everybody here in this particular community: if you are asked to support the Clontarf Football Academy, get out there and support it; go and see the kids when they are playing their games. This is really going to make a big difference to many hundreds of lives and really help build the future of Alice Springs.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Stuart for his question and his support for the Clontarf Football Academy. This government has made education the highest priority of our government and we acknowledge …
Mr Mills interjecting.
Mr HENDERSON: The member for Blain used to be a teacher, Madam Speaker. I would have thought that, in managing his class, he would have actually talked to students who constantly interrupted when somebody was speaking. I just ask for some manners. The member for Stuart used to be …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Please continue, minister.
Mr HENDERSON: Madam Speaker, I am sure the good people of Alice Springs want to hear some good news as opposed to interjections from the member for Blain. We know the huge challenges in literacy and numeracy across the Northern Territory, and improving the literacy and numeracy and educational outcomes of our indigenous students. Alice Springs, as we all know, has had their own challenges – but we have listened.
Late last year, I had a meeting with a gentleman by the name of Mr Gerard Neesham in my electorate office in Darwin. He came to visit me to talk about the Clontarf Football Academy that he had established in a number of places in Western Australian. Gerard Neesham, for those people who follow their football, was the first coach of Fremantle Dockers AFL team …
Madam SPEAKER: Excuse me, minister, would the person whose mobile phone just rang please turn the phone off.
Mr HENDERSON: He has coached a lot of indigenous football talent from the Northern Territory and knows the Territory very well. He came across and was extraordinarily convincing to me regarding the outcomes that such a football academy could achieve in Alice Springs, both in the philosophy and the results to date.
It is not about football, it is about education. If you look at what the academy has achieved in Western Australia in the six years or so it has been operating, over 80% of those students who have enrolled in the academy have gone on to achieve completion of Year 12 - 80% of those students have actually been transitioned into a job. It is about completing Year 12, it is about getting a job, and it is now up and running for the first term in Alice Springs. It is a tripartite arrangement between the Northern Territory government, the federal government and local business.
I hosted a lunch, which the member for Stuart and the member for Nhulunbuy, the Deputy Chief Minister attended, with business people from Alice Springs just a month ago, where I and Gerard Neesham made a presentation about the academy and encouraged the business community of Alice Springs to participate, to donate financially, and also work with the academy to find pathways for young people into jobs. There has been a very strong response and I congratulate the business community of Alice Springs for getting behind this particular program.
Currently, nine weeks in, 170 young people are attending the academy across three campuses: ANZAC Hill, Alice Springs High and Yirara College. Just last night, I had the opportunity to have a couple of beers with some of the footballers from the academy who are working with the students at Alice Springs High and Yirara College. What they were telling me last night was that the attendance rate of those students in the classroom at Yirara College for the first term had been the strongest they have been for 14 years. If we look at attendance rates for those 170 young people at ANZAC Hill and Alice Springs High, there is around 90% attendance compared to 40% attendance before.
You are not going to complete Year 12 unless you are in the classroom every day. What this program is about is, these mentors who support and develop the young kids football talent also go and follow them into the classroom. They support these students in the classroom, ensure that they are engaged and are focused on what is being taught to them. We are seeing some strong results. Next year, the academy is going to extend to senior years at Centralian College. Already, in the first term of operation, a number of the young students and the players have visited primary schools in Alice Springs to give our primary school students a real aspiration.
The features of the academy are around enrolment and attendance of students in school - that is the main feature - along with inter-school football competitions, fitness and health, literacy and numeracy, employability skills of graduates, and job prospects with supportive businesses. This is a significant investment in the youth of Alice Springs that I am absolutely certain will deliver fantastic results in years to come. It is going to make an enormous difference to the lives of many indigenous young men in Alice Springs, based on the Western Australian example. There is no reason why it cannot happen here.
We have 170 students enrolled in this program at the moment. On previous attendance and enrolment figures, we would probably be lucky to see 20% of those students going on, reaching and completing their NTCE. With this program, around 140-plus of those students are going to get their NTCE and will get a job. This is going to grow in Alice Springs; it is a significant investment. It is a good news story. I ask everybody here in this particular community: if you are asked to support the Clontarf Football Academy, get out there and support it; go and see the kids when they are playing their games. This is really going to make a big difference to many hundreds of lives and really help build the future of Alice Springs.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016