Question: In the late 1990s, Dr Chris Sarra became the first Aboriginal principal of Cherbourg State School where he made significant changes to the way that Indigenous students experienced education. Dr Sarra challenged the whole school community to have high expectations of Indigenous students and fostered the ‘strong and smart' approach which embraced a strong and positive sense of what it means to be Aboriginal in contemporary Australian society. This success led to the formation of the Stronger Smarter Institute (formerly known as the Indigenous Education Leadership Institute) which was established in 2005 as an innovative partnership between Education Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology.

The Institute seeks to achieve scale in delivering the Stronger Smarter approach to as many Indigenous students possible by partnering with, and working through, school and community leaders.

Learning context What happens when you ask 24 school & community leaders from the Jervis Bay region what Stronger Smarter means to them? Summarise the Sarra approach. Thinking about how this will help inform your practice and ensure that you are able to meet Standard 1.4?