Welcome to the Girri Girri Sports Academy Website.

Here you'll find a range of articles about the activities and initiatives of the Girri Girri Sports Academy for Indigenous Students. Girri Girri Sports Academy is a sports based initiative for Aboriginal students in Western NSW.

The schools targeted to be part of the sports initiative for Aboriginal students are Denison College of Secondary College (Bathurst High and Kelso High Campuses), Canobolas Rural Technology High School, Cowra High School, Orange High School, Condobolin High School, Forbes High School, Bourke High School and Brewarrina Central School.

The key objectives of the initiative are to improve attendance rates, improve retention rates and provide opportunities to improve literacy/numeracy skills of Aboriginal students.

To access the Academy students are required to meet the following criteria:

• - Attend school;
• - Attend and participate in the school sport;
• - Attend and participate in the school athletic carnival and swimming carnival;
• - Represent the school in any discipline (sporting, cultural, leadership);
• - Be a member of a sporting team or coach a team in a community competition.

The academy offers a differentiated curriculum including vocational qualifications, outdoor recreation skills, leadership skills, work experience and sporting clinics.

There is an expectation that students must gain a set of qualifications during each calendar year. For example, students must gain a first aid certificate, a level one coaching qualification, be able to swim 50 metres and another qualification in their area of interest.

Each student will have a personalised learning plan incorporating their chosen sport’s fitness program and the students will be linked through a buddy/mentor program in their chosen sport.

Students participate for two periods a week in the educational program on their own school site. All Academy members from each site will meet three times a year for a combined two/three day experience which will provide opportunities for guest speakers & role models to outline their success stories, the development of leadership and sporting skills and enhance career education and pathways to success programs. Depending on in-school negotiations, students may meet before school once or twice a week to participate in fitness sessions including a training run or aerobic sessions.

The teacher coordinating the academy in each site will monitor each student’s attendance and engagement in learning.

There are 15-20 Aboriginal students enrolled in the Academy from each of the nine sites.