Solid Pathways Transcript
Kerrelyn Mahoney – Parent – Runcorn State School: “Solid pathways program is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and out of home care kids basically to keep them on the path to going to university.”
Peter Ellerton – UQ Lecturer in Critical Thinking: “Education Queensland, in partnership with the University of Queensland, has designed a program to ensure that high achieving Indigenous students have the support they need to achieve whatever academic goals they choose for themselves. What makes this program so special is that these aspirations are also supported by specifically designed critical thinking courses, tailored to maintain the academic performance of these already high performing students. Drawing on curriculum expertise from UQ researchers and highly trained EQ teachers this program is intended to engage students from year 4 to 12 and to develop their critical thinking abilities and support their wider studies.”
Michele Masters – Teacher Aide – Wondall Heights State School: “Over the years there has been many numeracy and literacy programs held for the Indigenous children. They’re usually targeted at the lower end of the scale so this solid pathways being for the top two bands of NAPLAN is really a treasure for them and if we can take them through, they make those senior decisions on their subjects hopefully to get Uni entrance is something that they like doing each week, it challenges their minds for out of the box thinking with the critical thinking and it’s just a bit different with the one on one on the computer because we are in a technology age anyway but instead of being in the classroom and having 20 people interrupting - you may get a bit of it - this is a direct one on one so they intake it, they retain it, they enjoy it.”
Student 1: “Solid pathways can give me opportunities like a head start for university life, scholarships…”
Student 2: “Solid Pathways gives more of an abstract and out of the box type thinking towards everyday learning.”
Chris Hart – Deputy Principal – Boondall State School: “Our kids love the lessons they are so engaged with the online learning aspect of it. Each week they are incredibly excited to take part in it. It gives them a chance to talk and communicate in an online forum and what we see is that often we have children who are very, very shy and may not communicate all that well, verbally at school, particularly with their teachers, they get online and they are right into it, they are talking to people and they’re communicating in a written sense as well so we are finding that the kids are really excited and engaged and they are getting a lot out of it.”
Glen Thomas – Principal – Runcorn Heights State School: ”I suppose the benefits are the academic benefit we are seeing in both the children, they’re both improved in their academic levels but one of the other important things is that they felt good about themselves and they developed lots of confidence.”
Kerrelyn Mahoney – Parent – Runcorn State School: “As a parent I believe that’s it’s important that my daughter Bella continues on the solid pathways program, it’s increased her self-confidence and really got her interested in wanting to go to university.”
Student 3: “I find that I learn easier in Solid Pathways because it’s very direct and there are no classroom interruptions. One of the best things about solid pathways is that it gives you great opportunities. You can apply for scholarships for university and you can go to event days to help you learn about what you want to become.”
Student 4: “It is important for kids to do solid pathways because it helps them get a real sense of community and to meet new kids and to have fun and also learn while you are having fun, and having fun while learning is probably the easiest way to learn.”
Student 5: “Solid pathways is helping me with QCS preparation as it talks about critical thinking, reasoning, justification, deductive and inductive , which can help me with the writing part of the QCS test.”
Student 6: “My grades have improved a lot since I’ve started Solid Pathways; I want to continue doing Solid Pathways because it has made me learn a lot.”
Student 7: “My favourite part of solid pathways is that you get to meet people and you get to talk to them and its fun and it helps me learn better. Solid pathways hashelped me with my English and my literacy.”
Student 8: “My favourite thing about going online is learning new things and doing it a new way.”
Michele Masters – Teacher Aide – Wondall Heights State School: “I enjoy watching all the children, not only my two here in the room but all the children from the other schools, where their thinking comes from, how they think, what their answers are to the questions that Suzan is posing to them or what the other teachers are posing to them, to see what their line of thought is because they are going to be our next generation so our leaders hopefully so just to see how they can critically think outside the box and to see where they are coming from and hopefully this is what the education is doing – it’s giving them a good stance for the future.
Student 9: “Solid Pathways have opened my eyes to all the possible career ways that I can do, I am not restricted by my aboriginality or other barriers that I have to overcome. I chose to do the solid pathways program even though it is run after school because it helps me have a better understanding of critical thinking and how to apply it to the classroom, it also gives me a bit of a foothold into uni because obviously we got to come on a great camp and explore the University of Queensland and the facilities that it has to offer.
Glen Thomas – Principal – Runcorn Heights State School: “We’ve been in the Solid Pathways program now for these last 3 months, we made this decision to go into that program because of the things it can offer during that time. We knew the children were going to be out of the classroom but we thought the benefit of that would outweigh, and that certainly has occurred.”
Student 10: “My teacher Ms Masters, she helped me for three weeks to get onto Solid Pathways and how to do it and after that I did it for the rest of the weeks by myself.”
Michele Masters – Teacher Aide – Wondall Heights State School: “So as a school coordinator, coordinating Solid Pathways here in the school, as I say I’ve only got two children, it’s been relatively easy, the online set up is easy, the communication – emails each week is easy, the lessons are there, their event days are well organised the kids love going to them.”
Chris Hart – Deputy Principal – Boondall State School
From a supervisors point of view it’s been a really easy program to actually implement, the students are selected regionally, so we get a list of students, basically they are identified as high performing and performing in the top 10 percent of their age and cohort for NAPLAN and we basically go about getting permission for those students to participate and then basically provide them with access to the program here at school, so it’s been a really simple program to actually get going at the school and you know, over the years I guess we are looking to have it better embedded into the school and you know as time goes we just hope it’s going to be one of those things the kids can do year in, year out.
Kerrelyn Mahoney – Parent – Runcorn State School: “These Solid Pathway University days, I think are a great day out for the kids, it helps them experience all types of different activities and different facets of university life. The fact that my daughter has shown a lot of interest in archaeology since participating in that in the last UQ day really shows to me that it’s got her thinking about what she wants to do when she gets older. Prior to the program she really didn’t know what she wanted to do she had in mind that she would like to go to university, but I’m not sure that she was confident in her ability to get there and I think these days are showing her what the university it like and giving her a good taste of all the different offerings of the university and helping her go in the direction that she wants to.”
Student 11: “The last Solid Pathways day we went to UQ and we looked at different aspects of job opportunities and what we could do and we went to a practise courtroom and that really made me more interested in becoming a lawyer.”
Student 12: “I’ve always wanted to be a doctor since I was younger and since I joined the solid pathways program I’ve felt more supported.”
Student 13: “At the moment I don’t really know what I want to do, like after school but through solid pathways it can open up to all these different options and experiences.”
Student 14: “It has reinforced the state of me wanting to come to university because I did get a big glance into university life and what university is like so yeah it looks like a lot of fun so I definitely still want to come to university.”
Student 15: “I have been thinking about doing theatre for a while now and solid pathways has clarified that theatre is something I should pursue as a career.”
Student 16: “I would like to attend university obviously I want to work really hard to get an OP, hopefully attend a good university and maybe do a degree of some sort in psychology or engineering.”
Student 17: “One thing that I have in common with a lot of the other people who are on this camp is that we all want to go to university. Being at the event day today has really helped me to open a new window of what I would really like to do as a career when I’m older. After speaking to the people that work in the faculty I know that I have to work on my biology, chemistry and math to really get into working in the kind of department that I want to now.”
Student 18: “I would like to go to university because I believe that university is the key to finding success.”