This week St Mary’s College came alive with curiosity, creativity and connection as we were joined by our City–Country partner schools, Chisholm Catholic College and Sacred Heart Primary School, to host the Kimberley Innovation Festival. Across two days, students from Kindergarten to Year 12 explored, experimented, designed, questioned, created and, importantly, learned from one another.
The Festival grew from our City–Country Partnership, supported by the Yadha Muru Foundation. While it was certainly a celebration of STEAM learning as part of Science Week, what unfolded became something richer: a powerful example of what learning can look like when it is authentic, connected to place and community, and centred on the capabilities we want our young people to carry with them beyond school.
Tuesday brought our community into the learning. Local businesses, organisations, agencies and cultural experts generously shared their knowledge through hands-on workshops across both campuses. From live crocodiles to the moon, students encountered science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics not simply as subjects on a timetable, but as ways of understanding and responding to the world around them. Staff and students from Chisholm and Sacred Heart worked alongside our students and facilitated some incredible workshops of their own.
On Wednesday, the focus shifted to the expertise within our own schools. Students became teachers, leading their peers through practical challenges and activities, while staff shared ideas, skills and enthusiasm across year levels and learning areas.
CEWA’s Capabilities for Learning recognise that education extends beyond academic knowledge. Young people also need opportunities to collaborate, create, innovate, appreciate and think critically – developing the skills and dispositions to engage confidently with a changing world. The Festival gave us the opportunity to see those capabilities in action.
There was a genuine buzz around the College as students became drone pilots, rangers, biologists, chemists, electricians, engineers, artists and technicians. They worked with people of different ages and backgrounds; made, tested and problem-solved; asked questions, experimented and persisted when things did not go to plan. Older students confidently taught younger students, staff learned alongside their students, and rich conversations unfolded across our school community. But most striking was the palpable curiosity, enthusiasm and sense of wonder that ran through the school.
These moments matter.
Our own Vision for Learning calls us to build authentic learning that connects students to their place in the world, empowers them to participate and lead, and honours culture, identity and First Nations ways of knowing. From the earliest stages of planning, we were clear that the Festival should not become another expo where students simply moved past displays and observed the work of others.
We wanted learning to feel real and relevant. We wanted to recognise the knowledge, culture, skills and innovation that already exist here in the Kimberley. And importantly, we wanted our students to see themselves, their communities and their ways of knowing valued within the learning, while giving visiting students the opportunity to develop a deeper appreciation of Country, people and culture.
That intention was perhaps best captured as we farewelled some of our visitors. Yadha Muru Assistant Director Aunty Bev reflected on the Festival as an achievement of the Partnership in empowering students to learn, grow and thrive, and spoke powerfully about seeing our students given the opportunity to be the teachers; to be the leaders; to be the people others came to learn from.
For us as educators, this speaks to something deeper than engagement alone. It reminds us of the importance of creating spaces where students’ knowledge, identity and experience are not simply acknowledged, but become a genuine source of learning for others.
This is also where the value of the City–Country Partnership is most evident. It is not about knowledge or opportunity travelling in only one direction. Our visitors brought enormous expertise, energy and generosity to St Mary’s, but they also left having learned from our students, our staff, our community and our Country. For some this will be only the beginning of their story with St Mary’s and the Kimberley.
An undertaking of this scale is only possible through the generosity of many people.
We are deeply grateful to the Yadha Muru Foundation for its support and belief in what can be achieved through genuine partnership, and to our City–Country Partners at Chisholm Catholic College and Sacred Heart Primary School, who contributed so generously to the planning and delivery of the Festival. The generosity, strength and humility shown by your staff and students are a wonderful reflection of your school communities.
Particular acknowledgement must go to our Director of Academic Extension and Innovation, Zoe Court, whose vision, energy and extraordinary coordination were the driving force in taking this project from an ambitious idea to reality. An event involving students from Kindergarten to Year 12, multiple campuses, visiting schools and such a diverse range of community partners required an enormous amount of work behind the scenes, and Zoe’s passion for authentic, innovative learning was evident throughout every aspect of the Festival.
I also want to recognise our staff. So many contributed extra time, creativity, flexibility and goodwill – designing workshops, supporting students to lead, adapting spaces and programs, solving problems as they arose and stepping in wherever they were needed. That willingness to contribute says something important about the culture of our College. The enthusiasm and confidence we saw in our students did not simply happen. It was enabled by passionate adults prepared to create the conditions in which young people could take risks, contribute and succeed.
We also extend our sincere thanks to the many businesses, organisations, agencies, cultural knowledge holders and community members who so generously opened a window into their work. Their willingness to share their time, stories and expertise made learning tangible, relevant and memorable.
The Kimberley Innovation Festival is something of which our College can be enormously proud. More importantly, however, it was a showcase of the kind of learning we want to continue building.
Our Vision for Learning asks us to create authentic experiences that connect students to their place in the world. CEWA’s Capabilities for Learning similarly remind us that education should equip young people not simply with what they know, but with the capacity to shape their lives, respond to an unpredictable world and contribute meaningfully to the lives of others.
For two days, we saw that aspiration in action. And that is something worth celebrating – and something worth continuing.
