Nyikina Mangala Community School

"Nadooni mandajarra liyan yirrman kool wanganiji nyan Jarlmadangan Boorroo. Nirla wangarrngarra wanka badoo wanka yirbala koowiyayoonoo nirla wangadiji. Kaliya maboo."

("The community members wanted a school to be built here at Jarlmadangah Burru because they want their kids to stay in the community. Then they can learn how to speak their languages and be strong young people in themselves, so when they grow up they will be able to know what to do with their lives.") - Annie Milgin, Community Elder

The Nyikina Mangala Community School was established in 2000 to provide an appropriate educational service for Jarlmadangah Burru Aboriginal Community.

The Nyikina Mangala Community School's mission is to provide appropriate educational programs that focus upon language, culture and life skills which enables the children of Jarlmadangah Burru to be strong, healthy and reliable young people. To help achieve this plan the school is governed by the Nyikina Mangala School Committee.

The school provides educational programs based on an integrated curriculum model that focuses upon language, culture and life skills. Classroom programs involve students from a range of age and ability levels with the students relating to each other through Indigenous kinship structures rather than as class or year level peers.

To accommodate the various individual student needs the school endeavours to engage each student in an individual program which aims to maximise each individual's potential.

The school is currently registered to teach classes from Kindergarten to year 10 and caters for 30 students who are grouped into three learning environments; Kindergarten/Pre-Primary, Junior Primary, and Upper Primary/Secondary. The School has two classrooms, a large multipurpose classroom for the Upper Primary/Ungraded Secondary classes and a demountable classroom for Kindergarten/Pre-Primary and Junior Primary classes.

The two main language groups at Jarlmadangah Burru are Nyikina and Mangala. The Students' home languages are either Nyikina, Mangala or Aboriginal English and English to varying degrees. The school language program is supported by a small group of language specialists who work closely with the cultural mapping project to develop resources that are used in classes and in furthering the profile of Nyikina and Mangala.

The school aims to support the students in developing the necessary skills to be able to contribute and know their place in their own community and to be able to confidently interact as part of the wider community where Standard Australian English is spoken.
Nyikina Mangala Community School, Jarlmadangah Burru Aboriginal Community, West Kimberley. P O Box 759 DERBY WA 6728 ph: (08) 9191 7185 fax: (08) 9191 7185 Email: NyikinaMangala@bigpond.com Principal: Sean Leatherbarrow