At St Therese’s Girls School, we have initiated what we believe to be a more meaningful and more relevant utilization of our resources in producing a secondary program that is more appropriate to the needs of our students.

During 1980, the program was organized in a similar manner to previous years. Each grade – eight, nine and ten – was in the charge of grade teachers. We were fortunate in having a specialist art teacher, but basically the Post Primary section was organized in the typical primary style.

After much consideration, in 1981, we decided to try a different approach. We were prepared to do some experimenting but we were not prepared to upset our students with too much unjustified change. We spent considerable time in consultation with our Tiwi staff members. We wanted to use the resources of both our European-Australian and Tiwi staff members far more effectively. Also we wanted to provide a program that would cater for the needs of our students in a far more meaningful way. We didn’t feel that we were meeting these objectives with our past mode of organization. Previously our two Tiwi teachers were acting in the capacity of mere teacher aides without any real responsibility. We knew that they had far more to offer and that our Tiwi students had far more to gain by their effective participation in the program.