It's 12 pm Sunday April 13 and I will fly to Melville in 2 hours to begin Term 2. We've just enjoyed one week's holiday here in Darwin at the Mirambeena Resort where we have been living for about four weeks, and before that a week on Melville Island together as a family during our staff PD week. Alex joined us at the end of that first week after a fantastic week in Katherine at the residential school with Callum. That was the first time that the whole family spent together on Melville and it was well worth the three month wait!

Here are some pics of our time on the Island together.

Alex and Callum on the beach with a fresh Queen Fish:

The kids looking for bait under the rocks:

Chilling out in the shade:

Sunset on the beach:

So what's been happening? Let's see. In the month since I last blogged we have moved steadily towards the Dry Season, though not without the ongoing exciting dramas of Wet Season travel - here is a picture of one plane unfortunately bogged on our school airstrip:

We celebrated the completion of Term 1 at Tiwi College

Visited Woolaning Homeland Christian School, on which Tiwi College is modelled, a most amazing school at the forefront of Indigenous education in the country:

Saw classes in action at Woolaning - the teachers are inspirational. I have been born again as a literacy teacher (due to limited demand for the calculus at the moment) and we saw the Accelerated Literacy program in action, the program that we intend to implement at Tiwi College during this term.

We read the plaque at Woolaning acknowledging the good aspects of Brendan Nelson's work as Education Minister in his previous life ...

... and had the opportunity to tell him this in person the following day when we had lunch with him at the Parap markets:It all happens in the NT - even a deep heartfelt compassion for the 9% underdog.

Nicole and the kids are getting ready for the new school term this week! They are having a great time here, and the kids are growing in their love of the NT and the people. Nicole continues to hold us all together and make friends with people. She knows all of the support staff here at the Mirambeena by name.

The past week has seen Tiwi College on the front page of the Weekend Australian and in the opinion pages during the week. Indigenous Education is very much in the media at present, at every level, from politics to pedagogy. I have found it a real challenge to get all of the many issues in perspective. Last night at mass (at Nightciff with Fr Vince Carrol from Taroom Toowoomba) I had an overwhelming sense that our year here is all about serving the Tiwi Community. It's not about politics or ideology. It's about the students who come to the school, their parents and families, and the hopes and dreams that the Tiwi Education Board have for their people.