Andrew Plastow starts his Ngutu College in Adelaide's west in 2021 to nurture the skill sets of Aboriginal students
Andrew Plastow started his own Ngutu College in Adelaide's Woodville North to create a curriculum that allows Aboriginal students to follow their interests.
Image by Gabriella Marchant, courtesy ABC News, Adelaide
South Australian public school principal Andrew Plastow left the government education system frustrated at a curriculum he believed wasn’t empowering Aboriginal students.
His answer was to start a private school, Ngutu College, at Woodville North in Adelaide's western suburbs, grounded in Indigenous ways of teaching. Instead of Aboriginal children being seen as a “close the gap” deficit, Plastow wanted it recognised that "all of our Aboriginal kids come with incredible skill sets that just weren't being acknowledged in a very very Western-dominated education system."
Ngutu College had more than 40% Aboriginal students among its enrolment of 105, and 70% of students received free education through commonwealth government funding for disadvantaged students.
Plastow told ABC News, Adelaide, the aim of the school was to value all curriculum areas equally and empower children to follow their interests, rather than just pursuing reading, writing and arithmetic. Aboriginal ways of teaching, as well as emphasising culture, art and the agency of the child to follow their interests and instincts were critical: "Aboriginal culture provides a lot more space for children to develop and trusts them to be able to look after themselves in an environment."
Plastow said giving the students a variety of experiences was a key priority, with space at the school for provided for residencies in different professions: "Our children will see that their visual art studio is right next door to an amazing professional artist, and they will see that they are part of an artist village, and really reinforce that notion of: they are an artist, with as much talent and as much potential as the person in the studio next to them We want children to see themselves as a mathematician, to see themselves as a musician, to see themselves as a scientist."
Plastow said, while the school's approach was grounded in Aboriginality, the experience enriched all students, regardless of their background. The school’s flexibility included abolishing homework and allowing, for instance, a student who had the option to learn Kaurna, the Adelaide Plains Aboriginal language, to instead learn the sign language her father had used to communicate with his deaf brother.
In 2023, Ngutu College was awarded $100,000 by Impact100 South Australia philanthropy grants group.