Schools across Australia are increasingly working in partnership with Indigenous communities to improve Indigenous student outcomes. Above all, the focus of this cooperation is about ensuring that Indigenous children and young people succeed.
A written or recorded agreement is often an effective step in the process of strengthening and maintaining successful partnerships. Agreements vary in format and content reflecting the negotiation that has taken place between individual schools and communities and shared understandings that have emerged in relation to educational values, priorities and goals. Agreements may also be shaped by guidelines provided by education authorities and developed as part of school planning processes. Aspects of educational partnerships have been built into some shared responsibility agreements between the Indigenous community, the Australian Government and State or Territory governments.
The MCEETYA Reference Group on Indigenous Education, in liaison with Indigenous education consultative bodies, has developed a template to support the development of agreements. The template is a guide that can be built upon and/or adapted by individual school communities to reflect the outcomes of negotiation and school planning and accountability frameworks. The template contains requirements outlined in Australian Directions in Indigenous Education 2005-2008 (MCEETYA, 2006).
The template will be included in a resource package on the development of formal and informal agreements. This will be available in early 2008 on the What Works website. Information is also available from education authorities in each State and Territory.
