Community Connections at Loganlea State High School
From Left to Right: Rueben Davis, Haylee Day, Melachi Davis, Jo Symes.
Loganlea State High School has been sending staff to the Stronger Smarter Leadership Program since 2010. We spoke to Loganlea’s First Nations teachers Rueben Davis and Haylee Day, and Dean of Students Jo Symes shortly after they had undertaken the SSLP in 2025.
Knowledge House
Rueben told us that growing up and going through schooling in Logan, he knows how important it is for First Nations students to feel connected in the school. Loganlea State High School’s Knowledge House, which opened in 2006, has played an important part in making sure the school becomes a place for Indigenous excellence. “That’s become really massive to have a culturally safe space like the Knowledge House for everyone,” Rueben says. Knowledge House includes a Community Yarning Circle and Bush Tucker Garden. It is a shared cultural space designed as a meeting point for both First Nations and non-Indigenous students.
Strong in culture
Rueben told us how Loganlea was working to ensure that all First Nations students have a strong sense of being both strong in their culture together with the high expectation that they can always achieve their best in any classroom they step into. “I always want them to feel proud in who they are, have that fire in their bellies of being a proud Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person whatever their mob is,” he says. “So that balance of them being deadly as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander student but also being really deadly in the classroom as well.”
The Leadership Program really set that fire in my belly again to make sure that I’m being as strong as I can be in this space to be more reflective in my practise. I think doing the program really brought to attention the need to constantly be like that Mibunn [Eagle] flying high looking over what I’m doing working in the space as an educator and Knowledge House. What am I doing as an educator for all the Jarjums that walk into my class.
Rueben Davis, Teacher
Building relationships
Jo is the Dean of Students at Loganlea and also oversees the Knowledge House Team. Jo explained that as one way to increase acknowledgment and connection, Loganlea is embedding a recognition of First Nations perspectives into visible things such as uniforms, cultural care groups, and murals around the school.
A key takeaway for Jo from the Stronger Smarter Leadership Program is the importance of relationships. “The importance of emotional bank accounts. That’s how we’re going to achieve the best learning from our students when we’re investing the time and effort to establish that emotional bank account,” she says.
One change she is making is to change the structure of meetings. “It’s recognising the power of the circle in breaking down barriers and allowing people to feel safe, so that they can be open, they can contribute, and they can learn,” she says. In classrooms teachers are now starting to include check ins, and Jo says she can see a greater connections happening. “It just helps with that rapport between students and students and between staff and students.”
I thought the Stronger Smarter Leadership Program was fabulous. I came back with more inspiration for my role and why I love being a teacher. It helps you step outside and realise that we have to have a wider lens when looking at situations and that not everything is as it seems.
Jo Symes, Dean of Students
Haylee told us that everyone at the school is striving to build their relational capacity in the classroom in terms of how they engage with students. “It’s making sure that high expectations are ingrained throughout everything. It’s those strong and smart relationships and high expectations,” she says. “That being firm and fair can be challenging sometimes but we have to do it if we want to have the kids believe that they can accomplish anything that they set their minds to.”
Haylee says that setting the circle is important. “Typically our classrooms are rows of desks and it’s like ‘I am the source of all knowledge and you guys are just taking that in’. So setting that circle I think is very important when you want kids to be able to share what they think and have those conversations around topics that can be difficult or that we want to explore together.”
I think the biggest takeaway is to always challenge the structures that are in place. Why do we do it that way? Is there a better way that we can be teaching or working in this space that is more beneficial to the kids that we see every day?
Haylee Day, Teacher
Community Partnerships
As part of continuing to develop Knowledge House, Rueben says the school is working to connect with other spaces in Logan, to ensure strong community connections. “So when the Jarjums have that connection that’s not just to Loganlea, it’s we’re all part of that Logan community,” he says.
Haylee explained that the school is working closely with Gunya Meta. “They are a big support for the kids not only in the cultural learning but cultural safety as well. Getting to progress with kids that may not know too much about culture and making them feel secure in that space and valued in that space is so important.”
Haylee says the school also has a partnership with Griffith University. “Extending those pathways for our kids and letting them see what options they have for the life they want to live,” she says. “To not only be safe culturally but also take that next step and see what’s ahead of them and what they can achieve is so important”
View more Alumni stories and Case studies here.
If you would like to implement the Stronger Smarter Approach at your school, join a Stronger Smarter Leadership Program.
