New horizons for Allen and Kira-ann
Thursday, 17 April 2008

Congratulations to two Ganbina participants who have taken the challenge to attend boarding school this year.

Mooroopna's Allen Roberts stepped into a whole new world this year when he accepted a scholarship to attend Trinity Grammar School in Kew, east Melbourne, and 14-year-old Kira-ann Winmar-Briggs is studying at Geelong Grammar School. Khira-ann completed Year 7 at Wanganui Park Secondary College last year and is a state representative in basketball.

During Term 1 she made heaps of new friends and said she loves studying at Geelong Grammar. "There's more support with tutors, I play tennis...I like everything about it," she said.

Maths, science, English, French, health and physical education, history and technology are on Kira-ann's study schedule and when she's not studying she hangs out with friends and plays sport.

"There are 16 girls in my dormitory...it's lots of fun but sometimes it's hard to sleep cause of all the talking."

Kira-ann's parents, Daniel and Melanie, are very proud of her and she has got lots of support from other family members including her nan.

Allen was featured in The Age newspaper on March 8 with three other Indigenous boys studying at Trinity.

In the report he said "it was tough leaving his family in Mooroopna". But he said he wanted to pursue a science degree at Melbourne University, and was not convinced he could do it staying at his local government school where he had watched too many of his friends and cousins drop out at year 10.

"By coming down here it gives me a far better opportunity because there are too many distractions in the Shepparton-Mooroopna area. But here the school assists with tutoring and then you've got prep time at the boarding house every night. So it's got a nurturing environment for education," Allen told The Age.

We'll have an update on their progress throughout the year.