By DANE LILLINGSTONE
WARWICK State High School’s Mount Gordon Flexi-Campus continues to be a success three years after its inception, and they now want to give back to the community by having a food donation drive for local charities.
Starting in mid-2012 with 15 boys as a part of Warwick State High School, the program is still going strong with teacher Mark Fowler there from the beginning.
“What we teach them is always the same. It’s the responsibility. You’re responsible for your own behaviour, your own attitude,” he said.
The campus is a program for kids who have had difficulty assimilating the regular high school curriculum and have instead been moved to the program where there is an emphasis on hands-on and real world skills with the intention of preparing them for the workforce.
One day a week, some of the kids undertake work experience with local businesses and Mr Fowler said they were always looking for opportunities to get the boys working with and for the community.
“We wanna give back, that’s the key to it, that’s why we go to the dementia ward and we play games with them and talk to them. It’s very interesting to see (the boys) when they realise that some of these people might not see next week, they don’t understand to start with. Then they realise,” he said.
Currently, a few of the boys work in a variety of jobs in the community with one working for the NRL helping run sports carnivals.
Organisations like Headspace and the Red Cross have jumped on board to help out, and Mr Fowler wants more businesses to give them a start.
“It’s about that respect. Being functioning members of the community, that’s what we want,” Mr Fowler said.
Mr Fowler runs the campus with a teacher aide and said a typical day consisted of a morning meeting where they reviewed the day before and talked about what they were going to do that day, followed by exercise, a quiz on news and current events and three 30 minutes lessons.
“We work, we maintain the yards, the kids work on a roster system, the kids wash up, to varying degrees of success. They cook their own food, their own lunch, things like that. They’ve been building, they’ve been making their own stools and tables and chairs. We try to recycle everything,” he said.
He admits some days can be tough.
“Sometimes, we don’t do a real lot, other days we do a lot. That lack of engagement is what’s caused their inability to behave in some cases,” he said.
“(But) If we can get to one, it’s all worth it.”
Any food you would like to donate can be dropped to the Southern Free Times office at Shop 6/70 Fitzroy Street, Warwick, from today until Friday 31 July.
