PALS is based on the core attributes of Partnership, Acceptance, Learning and Sharing and aims to encourage all schools to undertake a project as part of school life that will have a positive impact on the way people relate.

It provides an opportunity for schools to consider the interaction between Indigenous and non-Indigenous members in the school community and develop a project to address social and/or environmental concerns specific to that community.

Not only do students gain a better understanding of Indigenous people and Australia’s rich Indigenous heritage, they develop a greater respect and appreciation of how the past has affected the lives of Indigenous people today.

Teachers are important links in PALS. They act as guides and mentors, but it is the involvement of students that is key to a successful PALS project. If students own and understand the project they will learn more and be able to share more with others.

PALS participants contribute to building a better society – a place ultimately free of racism and prejudice and instead filled with harmony, hope, understanding and acceptance.

Curriculum Links

PALS is closely aligned to the Society and Environment syllabus, particularly in the outcome areas of Investigation, Communication and Participation; Culture; Time, Continuity and Change; and Active Citizenship.

It does this by encouraging schools to take Aboriginal Studies beyond the classroom. Face-to-face encounters and hands-on learning, in partnership with the Indigenous and broader community, creates an opportunity for all those involved to accept, learn and share with each other.

PALS also supports and promotes the five clusters of core shared values that underpin the Curriculum Framework by dispelling some of the myths, building a shared pride in Indigenous heritage, and helping to create an environment in which optimism, harmony and respect thrive.

As an example Moerlina Primary School’s 2005 PALS project ‘Coonana Camps’ provided an opportunity for the school to promote key concepts and themes such as social justice, participation, human rights, cultural diversity and respect. Students from Moerlina worked in partnership with students from Tranby Primary School to produce a DVD on Local Community. Positive relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students developed as they worked collaboratively on the activities and shared information about lifestyles and environment.

Students were empowered to take the lead at every stage by contacting and interviewing community members to storyboard, film, edit, promote and launch the film. This approach supported the school’s use of student-centred learning.  Moerlina’s PALS project was also a meaningful action-learning activity where students worked collaboratively though the inquiry process. Together students researched aspects of the local community, such as facilities and businesses, culture and recreation to gain a better understanding of the environment they lived in.

Moerlina’s project won them a Highly Commended Award in the 2005 PALS Awards.

Links to other major learning areas

A PALS project can assist teachers in meeting learning outcomes in more than one learning area.

For Moerlina PS, the primary learning focus was Society and the Environment, but English, art and technology skills were also practiced as part of the PALS project.

In other PALS examples, students developed and monitored the project budget allowing teachers to incorporate Mathematics outcomes.

Lesson Plans

PALS also encourages schools to consider looking beyond Society and the Environment as the exclusive learning area for Indigenous education. The Department of Education and Training’s Aboriginal Perspectives Across the Curriculum (APAC) initiative has developed more than 150 sample lesson plans that feature an Aboriginal context in all phases of schooling and in all learning areas.

Teaching APAC assists students to explore the viewpoint of Aboriginal people on a range of issues such as reconciliation, social justice and equality.

The APAC lesson plan ‘Caring for Wetlands – the Noongar way’ is focused on the Mathematics and Science learning areas but also incorporates aspects of English, Health and Physical Education, LOTE, and Society and Environment. A class studying this topic could build in a PALS project that investigates the cultural significance of a wetland in their local area. This could give students their first real opportunity to interact with Indigenous people in a positive way and build better relationships.

PALS supporting Education for Sustainability

Moerlina Primary School was one of the first schools to adopt an Education for Sustainability (EfS) approach. EfS is a WA Sustainability in Schools initiative (AuSSI-WA) aimed at integrating existing environmental and social education programs into a coordinated framework.

At present, most WA schools practice many elements of sustainability of Education for Sustainability through such areas as utilities management, bushland and dune protection schemes, reconciliation and other social (student wellbeing) programs.

The AuSSI - WA takes it to the ‘next level’ by encouraging the use of sustainability as a context for teaching and learning as part of a whole-school approach. Embedding sustainability within the culture of the school community is the overarching goal of this initiative. A PALS project could promote sustainability as it relates to Indigenous culture.

Each year schools or classes that complete a project can enter the PALS Awards and win great prizes for themselves and their school.  

• Read Competition Categories and Terms and Conditions before you enter.
• PALS Projects show what other schools have done to contribute to reconciliation.
• Sponsors tells why the Department of Indigenous Affairs and BHP Billiton Iron Ore initiated PALS. Learn also about PALS supporter the Department of Education and Training.
• Register Here to enter PALS, receive the PALS newsletter and have the chance to win prizes.