Top End Group School, NT Australia

ABOUT TOP END GROUP SCHOOL...

What is the Top End Group School?
TEGS is a multi-campus school comprising more than 800 students and 150 staff. It is located in 15 small communities in the Top End of the Northern Territory. The school’s Front Office is located in Darwin.

Who makes up TEGS
Our students and staff are multi-culturally diverse with 85% of students being Indigenous (most are speakers of languages other than English): and the other 15% mainly being speakers of English as their first language.

Where are TEGS schools located?
Four schools are located on islands. One is located in Arnhemland. Two are based at research stations. Two are on cattle stations. One is in a village on the Stuart Highway, another is in a national park, two service rural block owners and two others are on Aboriginal land. Use the Aussie Map link to see for yourself. While they may appear isolated, being connected as a Group School means added opportunities to participate in intraschool and interschool sporting events, camps and an annual festival.

What staff are at TEGS schools?
As well as teachers, assistant teachers and general support staff, each school has a Teaching-Principal who is the local educational leader. The 15 Teaching-Principals are part of the TEGS Leadership Team. The Leadership Team also includes the Principal, Assistant Principal and Resource staff, for example the ESL Coordinator, who operate from the front office.

What does the TEGS Leadership Team do?
The TEGS Leadership Team:

develop policy
determine directions and priorities acting on advice from school staff and community members
align grant monies to those priorities
meet each term for TEGS business, to be informed of NT DEET directions and to support and encourage each other.

What are the current TEGS projects?
The TEGS Leadership Team agreed on the following projects:

Literacy Through Science, strengthening the work done in 2007, with a classroom focus
Continue Everyday-All Day Attendance Program
Maintain focus on professional learning (PL) through a range of targeted PL opportunities such as AL, CMIT, WTT and Maths 300
Implementation of our Drug Ed Policy at the individual school level
Literacy through the Arts (visual, performing)
Student and staff well-being through a counsellor position and protective behaviours program
Implementation of Middle School and Age of Entry where appropriate.

What is the future for TEGS?
In terms of the advantages of small schools coming together for support and achieving our goals, the sky is the limit.The 6 Group Schools have over a third of DEET Indigenous students enrolled. If we work together we can achieve great things.

We had a dream…

This was the dream in 2003, that one day there will be a waiting list of teachers wanting to get into a TEGS school because they see it as a vibrant, supportive place where:

all staff and parents work together to improve the educational outcomes for our students.
the turnover in TEGS schools will be so low, that the ‘probation panel’ will be an endangered species.

We still have a dream…

Now, in 2008, much of the 2003 dream has been realized with a high quality staff in place and a teacher retention rate within TEGS this year of 81%. So, now we are focusing on moving from being a good school to a great school by:

consolidating and growing further the gains made in attendance
continuing to share what works to improve students English literacy and numeracy outcomes
implementing Middle School in many of our schools.

We have a dream!

Leonie Jones
TEGS Principal