Secondary students meeting in Halls Creek - 18 May 1999
Students from Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 participated in the meeting at Halls Creek District High School. The District High School offers classes to Year 12. Most of the children at Halls Creek speak Kriol and English. This includes the Aboriginal and the non-Aboriginal children. (Kriol is an English-based Creole that has expanded and developed from the more simple pidgin that was used as a first contact language between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people in Northern Australia. Kriol is a full language and is now the first language of many Aboriginal people in the Kimberley.) Other languages spoken in the Halls Creek area include, Jaru, Kija, Gooniyandi and Walmajarri.
Sports carnivals
Sport is an important part of the school life at Halls Creek. Students enjoy the opportunity to compete with other schools including schools from Kununurra and Fitzroy Crossing. Students play basketball, T-ball and football at the sports carnival once each year. Girls and boys play the same sports at school with the exception of football and netball that is played by boys and girls respectively.
Music program
The students have the opportunity to learn drums, guitar, bass guitar and keyboard. Students are able to try out options in Year 8 and must then select an option (this may be music) for Year 9. Students do not have to have their own instruments.
Excursions
Halls Creek students without exception described the importance of excursions. These excursions are usually to local water holes or creeks as there is no creek in Halls Creek. The horse-riding program is also very popular at Halls Creek. Students learn to ride and to fix fences as part of the school curriculum. The horses are owned by the school.
Some students have had the opportunity to travel to Darwin for sporting events. These opportunities have also been highlights for the students.
Facilities
"The classrooms are too small." "We don't have enough room." "The air-conditioning is too cold and noisy and then when you turn it off it is too hot"
"We need a bigger playground. There is not enough space." "We want a swimming pool. Some schools have pools and we need one here because it is so hot."
Teachers
"Three years at the max is as long as the teachers stay in Halls Creek."
Swimming
"We don't have a public swimming pool at Halls Creek. The creeks are 10 kilometres out of town. The swimming pools are at the caravan park and at the hotels and we can't use them."
Curriculum
Music, horse riding, art, computing, home economics, physical recreation are included. Students would like to do gardening and swimming and driving lessons as part of their options.
"We are tested at the end of the year at the end of Year 7 and then we get put into either General Studies Foundation Studies or Mainstream Studies. General Studies is Years 8, 9 and 10. Year 7s do the test at the end of the year. There is another test at the end of the year and it is possible to change streams."
"In Year 12 we can do Vocational Maths and Vocational English and Station Skills and Office Skills. Station Skills teaches you how to work on a station and do things like welding."
Students have access to the Internet though not all students have had the opportunity to use it due to high demand. The cost of the Internet means that students must go through their teachers when they want to have access.
Teasing at the school
Teasing is a big problem at the school. Students swear at each other and tease and hit each other. This happens in the school ground and in the classrooms. The teasing is usually about fighting between families which is then carried on by the children at school. The students find the fighting and teasing at school to be very distressing.
Work experience
In Year 12 students can do work experience for 2 days per week. The work experience is generally at the hospital in Halls Creek. Students do not leave Halls Creek for work experience.
Travel
"We all live at the same station and the bus picks us up at 7.30am in the morning and we get home at 2.30pm in the afternoon."
Homework
"We get no homework here in Year 11 and 12. In grade 7 we have homework classes after school for one hour."
Recreation
There is very little to do in Halls Creek after school. Sport is offered at the youth centre. There are occasional discos at the youth service though these have been postponed due to the refurbishment of the Shire Council Hall. Other discos have been cancelled because the CDs were stolen.
Students find that there is little to do after school but hang around the town.
Boarding school
A number of the Halls Creek students tried to board in other cities and towns though they had returned to Halls Creek to complete their school because they were homesick. The students had decided to board at schools in Perth and in Darwin to increase their curriculum options.
Indigenous languages
Almost all the students at the meeting wanted to learn an Aboriginal language through school though none is currently available. There are 2 half hour language sessions per week for Grades 1 and 3 at the school but no other language learning is available to the children.
Last updated 2 December 2001.
