My teacher training at Sydney Uni included an internship at Newtown Boys High, then a disadvantaged inner city boys’ school. It included specific courses in multicultural and girls’ education.
During that year I also volunteered at the Inner City Resource Centre, established under Whitlam government funding for support of disadvantaged schools.
My first teaching experiences were in Moree, which showed me in many stark ways the importance of Aboriginal education programs, one of which I was responsible for starting at Courallie High in 1980 (see entry on 'My Teaching Experience) . I worked with some of the first Aboriginal Education Assistants, who guided me through contact with community elders.
Back in Sydney, and working in Bankstown, I served as a federation representative on the regional DSP Committee, and then the State DSP Committee, which set state-wide policy for equity programs. This was while working full time as a teacher, so I came to this involvement as a practitioners’, not as a union official.
I also helped to develop and teach co-operatively in DSP literacy and other programs at Bankstown Girls High.
Below: Author of My Place, Nadia Wheatley, taking part in a DSP-funded literacy program at Bankstown GHS.
