Aboriginal Basketball Academy begins at Woodville High School in bid to boost attendance
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Woodville High School is hoping to boost the number of Aboriginal students completing their South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) by using the popularity of basketball to entice teens to class.
The school has established an Aboriginal Basketball Academy, where students spend one day a week studying and playing basketball.
Mentor Paul Vandenbergh developed the idea while running the Aboriginal AFL Academy through the Port Adelaide Football Club.
"We embedded the program into the curriculum, so they were actually doing a certificate in sports and recreation that went towards their SACE," Mr Vandebergh said.
"We've basically mirrored that here with the basketball academy."
Year 10 student Allen Edwards said he had always played football, but his friends encouraged him to make the shift to the basketball court.
"I'm an athletic person. I just like playing sport and a few of my friends wanted me to play basketball so I thought, why not," he said.
"It'll give me a bit of a boost against everyone else when I go out and play competitive and district and stuff."
Students need to have a good attendance record in all their subjects to be part of the academy, something organisers say is already having an impact.
The program has been running for just under a month, but attendance is already at 90 per cent.
It is an approach that is working for year 10 student Evie Goldsmith.
"I think it does give me motivation to go to school during the week and it gives me something to look forward to at the end of the week," she said.
"I love playing sports and being here we get to play a lot of basketball.
"There's obviously the book work but that's easy to do. We do it together and work as a team."
The academy has been given a $50,000 grant from the State Government as part of a program designed to help schools develop specialist subjects.
"It means they can attract Aboriginal students who are interested in playing basketball and interested in doing well at school, they can come along and be part of this program," Education Minister Susan Close said.
"It will increase their attendance and also build in a lot of academic work as well."
Topics: education, secondary, aboriginal, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, woodville-5011, adelaide-5000, sa
