{"id":100809,"date":"2015-03-24T19:38:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T09:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=100809"},"modified":"2020-11-16T11:46:23","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T01:46:23","slug":"education-gap-starts-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/03\/24\/education-gap-starts-to-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Education Gap Starts To Close"},"content":{"rendered":"

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March 24, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

A record number of Cherbourg children are graduating from Year 12 and going on to further study, university, apprenticeships and jobs.<\/p>\n

And Indigenous student attendance rates of between 88 and 91.5 per cent are being recorded at many schools surrounding Cherbourg.<\/p>\n

School leadership and staff are crucial to these results but Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council also believes its residents\u2019 attitudes towards education have changed since it brought in a program to support the schools\u2019 efforts to have children in class every day.<\/p>\n

Cherbourg council CEO Warren Collins said a lot had happened since it brought in the Parental and Community Engagement (PaCE) program to the town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re getting great reports from school principals in regards to the progress of Indigenous students within the area,\u201d Mr Collins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what we\u2019re told parents are engaging positively with their children\u2019s education and we have more children than ever before attending private and boarding schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the last Census showed Cherbourg had 1300 people of which half were under the age of 19.<\/p>\n

Cherbourg State School has about 170 students, with the remainder going to Murgon High and Primary schools, St Joseph\u2019s Catholic primary school, Moffatdale primary, St Mary\u2019s Catholic College, Wondai P-9 and other small schools dotted around the South Burnett.<\/p>\n

Since the PaCE program began in November 2010 it has:<\/strong><\/p>\n