Gurubangamba Mentoring and Transition Program
On Wednesday, ten students from Year 5 and Year 6 attended the Gurubangamba Mentoring and Transition program at Carroll College. This program is to assist our Stage 3  Indigenous students to transition to a secondary education with confidence. It is a great opportunity for our students to make connections with their peers from St Bernard’s, and the Carroll College leaders act as mentors in this process.

The theme for this session was ‘fostering resilience’ and students participated in a range of activities that encouraged them to collaborate with others, solve problems and persevere to complete a challenge. From our students' feedback, they all really enjoyed the Dadirri experience - the practice of deep listening and quiet still awareness. You can read some of the students' reflections about the day below.

Thank you to Mrs Katuke, Trish Ellis and Chelsea Laurie and the Carroll College students that coordinated and led such a great day.

I really liked the Dadirri because it was peaceful, relaxing and calming. We sat, closed our eyes and listened to the sounds and smells around us and thought about what we felt. We used a talking stick and everyone got to share their thoughts about how we heard the things around us. We built towers that had to balance and we had to think about how to change our design and we got to share our ideas, listen to the ideas of others and combine them into an idea that would make our tower the tallest and balanced.
Jakayda - Year 6

I liked the meditation we did at the end of the day…it was very calming and we could hear everything around us. At the start of the day we played a game called Knights, Horses and Maidens. It was fun to work with people that I don’t normally work with, including someone from St Bernard’s.
Ryder - Year 6

I liked doing the meditation circle and just sitting listening to the wind and cars going past. I liked doing the outside games with the other kids from St Bernard’s and Carroll College because it was lots of fun. Making the towers with raw pasta, marshmallows, rubber bands, straws and tape was also fun.
Roarke - Year 5