28 January 2026
Fairview Primary School in Collie is one of 16 WA schools to benefit from a grant program aimed at promoting Aboriginal cultural understanding and advancing reconciliation.
Fairview Primary School students got familiar with a snake at a native animal incursion.
The Partnership Acceptance Learning Sharing (PALS) grant helps schools fund projects that enrich student learning by reflecting stories, histories and cultural practices in partnership with local Aboriginal communities.
Fairview Primary School received the grant in the Term 3 round of 2025 PALS funding.
Andrew Whitney, principal at Fairview Primary, said the grant will deliver a variety of projects and activities to build knowledge of Noongar culture at the South West school.
“We’ve already held a native animal incursion to expose students to some of the native animals they have been learning about in their Noongar language sessions and learnt about caring for country and the native flora and fauna,” he said.
The PALS grant will also kickstart longer term projects to foster a culturally-safe school community at Fairview.
“The second part of the project is to create three sets of totem poles around our school that tie together Noongar symbols with our school ethos of CARE – collaboration, achievement, respect and enthusiasm,” Mr Whitney said.
“We were fortunate to have the blank poles donated to us.
“The final part of the project will include working with local Noongar artist, Harley Akers, to create murals based on the Noongar seasons.”
Fairview Primary School's Noongar snake design.
Akers was previously engaged to create a Noongar snake design for use at Fairview.
The snake was endorsed by a local Elder and appears on the school’s Year 6 leavers shirts. It will also be printed on a carpet runner to be used at special assemblies.
A total of $78,695 in grants was shared by schools in the Term 3 round of PALS funding. For more information, visit the PALS program website.
Schools that received grants in Term 3, 2025 were:
- Ballajura Primary School
- Banksia Grove Primary School
- Burbridge School
- Charthouse Primary School
- Governor Stirling Senior High School
- Grandis Primary School
- Honeywood Primary School
- Joondalup Primary School
- Kalamunda Christian School
- Mullaloo Community Kindergarten
- Quinns Beach Primary School
- St Michael's School, Bassendean
- Yanchep Beach Primary School
- Fairview Primary School
- Kearnan College
- Avonvale Primary School