All IGS students are enriched by our broad First Nations education program.
All IGS students are enriched by our broad First Nations education program.
A mutually beneficial Indigenous Scholarship Program
At IGS, in keeping with our vision Unity Through Diversity, we warmly acknowledge Australia’s first peoples and offer our respect to their descendants.
Through the unique IGS Indigenous Scholarship Program, introduced in 2003, we welcome two First Nations Kindergarten students on scholarship each year to be educated to Year 12. Five scholars have graduated in recent years, and a sixth has joined an elite sports training program.
At any one time, IGS hosts about 20 First Nations scholars. This mutually beneficial arrangement enriches non-Indigenous students’ understanding and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture.
These students and their families provide insights into the heritage of Australia’s first people and one of the oldest continuous Indigenous cultures in the world, with living links to the Gadigal land on which IGS stands, and throughout Australia as a whole.
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A dedicated Indigenous education team
IGS Head of Indigenous Education Jade Carr works closely with each Indigenous scholar, providing personalised learning plans.
Jade collaborates with fellow Masters of Leadership in Indigenous Education graduate and IGS teacher Lucy Howard-Shibuya to review the program map of inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum and pedagogy through the School to ensure that every student at IGS is enriched with the knowledge of language, histories and cultures of our First Nations people.
A leader in Aboriginal Studies
Aboriginal Studies was introduced at IGS in 2017 as a Stage 6 elective HSC course.
Increasingly popular, it is now available for students in Years 11 and 12 in both a normal timetable format and a compressed mode, and will shortly to be offered for students in Years 9 and 10.
In 2023 HSC Aboriginal Studies our students performed at 17.56 per cent above the State mean.
Indigenous engagement
From regular Red Earth tours to Central Australia for Year 9 to local excursions and incursions, IGS students have the opportunity to hear first hand from First Nations peoples about their culture and experiences.
Acknowledging Country
In recent years, acknowledgements of Gadigal country in language at Speech Night have broadened to be included at assemblies and staff meetings and are encouraged to be used by the school community in all aspects of school life.