BEING able to dream a dream for their future - that's what Mornington Island State School principal Peter Linnehan told the recent government visit was the ingredient needed for their students.
A board proudly displayed attendance rates of up to 90 per cent, a 13pc increase in the numbers of children sustainably going to school, but Mr Linnehan said that although the Remote Student Attendance Strategy (RSAS) was opening doors it was only a first step.
He was backed up by his deputy, Prue Ruler, who said that even if petrol-sniffing addictions were stopped something would take its place unless there were aspirations of jobs and self-worth - "they need skills on what to do".
Education services officer Craig Hansen is responsible for RSAS and school transition programs. The school has an enrolment of 332 and growing but it loses 60pc of its students at the end of Year 6 when they travel to the mainland for boarding school. Of those, 60pc return to the island having not succeeded in the transition. Mr Hansen says of 30 children who completed Year 5 only five went on to collect their senior certificate off-shore. Even if there are no jobs for them to come home to, he and the school are looking at a multi-pronged strategy to prepare them for boarding and to ensure they acquire job skills.
"They don't know where to go to from here - we have to give them an idea," he said. The school's vision is to have staff working with students at school in Cairns, mentoring and supporting them.
Staff at the school on Mornington Island take part in night patrols and told Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion a 9.30pm curfew and a refuge would be a big help to the community's youths.
They had to take children back to homes they had left or to safe houses overloaded with up to 13 young people. "Kids know how to make home brew now," student staff welfare head Mary McInnes said. School staff are also forced to share unsuitable living conditions. Ms McInnes, 63, is sharing a bathroom with male staff member, 25.
Mr Scullion said NAPLAN tests showed the school was "a beacon to other low socio-economic communities".
"Education Queensland just looks at the numbers and says they have the beds. They don't see the privacy issues, and they don't see how hard it is to attract quality staff because there's no housing."