Supporting Aboriginal Children to Learn: The Use of Reading for Life in Barnardos Australia Learning Centres: Report on Phase One

Barnardos Australia is a non-Government registered charity which provides family support, adolescent, and care services to approximately 8,000 children in NSW and ACT. In three of Barnardos Childrens Family Centres there are after school Learning Centres. These are located in rural, urban, and regional areas in: Wellington, Redfern, Queanbeyan. The children attending the Centres are from Years 1-6 at their local primary schools and are predominantly but not exclusively Aboriginal. These Centres are predominantly staffed by Aboriginal workers and some Centres use volunteers. They are managed in an integrated way with Barnardos family support programs such as home visiting and crisis care. In 2011, Barnardos sought assistance from Learning Links, a children’s charity and the owners of Reading for Life, to help the staff and volunteers in Learning Centres to be more effective in their work on children’s learning. The Reading for Life program has begun in Orana Far West and will be implemented in the Yurungai and Quenbeyan Centres in 2011. An estimated 60 Aboriginal children will be using the system by the end of 2011. By 2012 any child new to these Centres will use the system. Reading for Life has been subject to evaluation (e.g. Hornery, 2011). However, no work has been undertaken on the program’s impact on Aboriginal students’ learning. At the end of 2011, Barnardos entered into a partnership with the Centre for Positive Psychology and Education (CPPE), School of Education, UWS to evaluate the impact of this program. Barnardos nominated the Yalmambirra Learning Centre as the centre of focus for this research. The research strategy to be employed was constructed in collaboration between Barnardos and CPPE, UWS. The research strategy adopted incorporated two distinct phases: Phase One (consultation) and Phase Two (data collection). The purpose of Phase One was to elucidate the research design and methodology of Phase Two. This was achieved by consulting with the local community stakeholders who would be directly involved in, and affected by the research.