Yudi Gunyi School is a specialised behaviour school for up to 42 students. Students can be referred for a medium to long term program (12 to 18 months) primarily for students Year 5 to 11 experiencing challenges with their behaviour in a mainstream setting

Yudi Gunyi equips students and their referring ‘home’ school with the skills and strategies to experience success in a mainstream school environment.

“Our school’s model of wraparound support, coupled with innovative work in early intervention and collaborative partnerships with the community has seen a significant reduction in student suspensions over the past five years,” Principal, Patrick Faucher said.

At Yudi Gunyi, a multidisciplinary team including psychiatrist, psychologist, paediatrician, occupational therapist, speech pathologist, art therapist, nurse and specialist teachers work together to develop teaching practices and approaches to support student behaviour management and wellbeing that are innovative and integrative.

The multidisciplinary team is called Ngaramadhi Space, with ‘Ngaramadhi’ meaning ‘active listening’ in Dharawal language. The name was given to the school as a result of its ongoing collaboration with the NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council.

“It is through this personalised and multidisciplinary approach to learning and support that our students learn to understand how the brain works, why they react the way they do and how to manage their own behaviours,” Patrick said.

“Our goal is to support our students to develop resilience and self-awareness, to enable them to participate and succeed in an ever-changing world.”

Yudi Gunyi School is making significant inroads in capacity building with referring mainstream public secondary schools in NSW.