Broome Senior’s indigenous education push

A local Kimberley school has followed through on a pledge to increase the quality of its indigenous studies after being one of the first around the country to implement a unique position.

Stephanie Armstrong was recently appointed as Aboriginal education co-ordinator at Broome Senior High School, in an effort to grow the department across all year levels.

Born in New South Wales, the Gamilaraay woman has worked all across the nation, helping to guide indigenous students, with recent roles including co-chairing the Bendigo Reconciliation committee in Victoria and reviewing development programs in schools as part of the Australian Council for Education Research.

But Ms Armstrong will now devote her time to reviewing current classes, programs and facilities, as well as sitting in on senior meetings, before eventually introducing a plan to grow the Aboriginal components of BSHS.

She will complete this role while balancing teaching English and inter-cultural studies classes.

Having lived in Broome for a working stint more than a decade ago, Ms Armstrong said she was very excited to be back in the region.

“The thing about this town is that it welcomes you with open arms, so I see the need to give back to this community and that is an old grounded principle of mine,” she said.

“My new role is all about growing this Aboriginal department at Broome Senior, which was initiated by the school itself.

“That is the reason I applied in the first place, because I saw it was a school willing to change.

“There is a lot of goodwill here and a lot of people who want to see change — what I have to do is bring it all together.”