We are making plans to open a registered independent Special Assistance School in 2026, in Moree, NSW. We envisage this school being a pilot school and main campus for a collection of satellite campuses in the North West region of NSW, with the following goals and objectives:

• To provide necessary immediate intervention for students who are seriously behind in literacy and numeracy.
  Experience & Observations: The majority of students who participate in our Grassroots Learning Trailer programme are reading at a Kindergarten/Year 1 level, and are missing foundational reading and writing skills.
  
  
• To provide therapeutic supports for students who have experienced educational trauma resulting in disengagement and mental illness.
  Experience & Observations: There are many students who have been subjected to the “Support Class” due to social, behavioural and emotional difficulties. As a result of not receiving adequate supports the student have disengaged from learning over time, there are also a large percentage who have either then gone on to criminal activity or developed suicidal ideations.
  
  
• To develop a healthy, effective learning bridge pathway between youth justice and education services.
  Experience and Observations: Currently when young people are incarcerated, they are unenrolled from their current school and then enrolled in the prison system education processes. Upon release there is no current pathway of follow-through for re-engagement in learning. And if young people are incarcerated for 3-6 months at a time, every 6-8 weeks or so, you can imagine how problematic this is for the young person and their family, as well as the effect it has on the community. We would like to be part of the solution to this very big problem in our region, and look at developing effective, smoother pathways.
  
  
• To work alongside the public schools to deliver these necessary supports, primarily for the wellbeing of the student and their family.
  Experience and Observations: The public system schools tend to be stand-off-ish to working with independent/private providers. In our regional communities there is already lack of resources and personnel, and the often the needs of the student and their family become secondary to ‘the allocation of funding’. By opening this Special Assistance School we hope to work alongside public schools in the North West region, providing immediate interventions for support and recovery and then implementing an educational transition plan back into a mainstream educational setting.
  
  
• To develop a model of family-teaching-family learning
  Experience and Observations: We would love to develop a model of schooling where extended family members are invited to participate in vocational training alongside their family and then eventually contributing to the development of their own children. We would envisage parents being paid accordingly for their contributions of learning and this school being established as a central hub in the community for families to gather, learn and recover together.

We hope to do this work under the governance of the Melos Group of schools.

We are looking to connect with interested and potential staff – not just teachers, but also therapists and allied health workers who could become part of this unique education recovery & support network. If you are interested, please contact Erin Strahan by sendingl her an email to erin@nhuubalayugal.org