First Nations students from remote communities frequently make the choice to move to boarding school to complete their secondary education because of the limited educational opportunities in their local communities. To do this, students leave their family and peer support structures during adolescence. Although governments have provided funding…

Successful transition from education to the workplace is vital for young people, particularly Indigenous students from remote communities, to support their long-term economic and emotional well-being, social inclusion, physical and mental health. This paper reports findings from a three-year study undertaken collaboratively with young people at a…

The term 'choice-less choice' in education arises from the ethical dilemma where parents are left with no option other than one they do not want to choose. In this article, we draw particularly from David Mander's (2012) use of the term, where he applied it to First Nations students from Western Australia. In Australia, choice-less choice applies…

This exploratory study investigates aspects of sleep quality and some of the potential impacts of sleep complaints for 168 male boarding students from regional and remote communities in Years 7 to 12. An online self-report questionnaire was used to examine the relationship between sleep quality and participants' sense of academic self-perception,…

Developing and nurturing resilience is critical to the social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of Indigenous Australian adolescents and their continuing life trajectories. The attendance of many Indigenous adolescents from remote communities at boarding schools creates a need to prioritise and proactively create opportunities that build and nurture…

A doctoral study of a program designed to provide access to secondary education for children from a remote Indigenous community was completed in 2014 (Hunter, 2015). This paper reflects on the ongoing commitment of members of this community to a partnership that uses interstate boarding schools as a means of educating their children. It reviews…

Internationally, schools have recognised the need for supporting and improving the resilience of students, particularly those facing a multiplicity of challenges. However, social and emotional learning programmes, including those aimed at enhancing resilience, are often not evaluated thoroughly nor detail process and economic evaluations. This…

Sense of belonging is a fundamental human need that can affect long term education and health outcomes. It can also be impacted by the design of the built environment, in this case by the interior design of boarding schools. Within the emerging literature pertaining to experiences of boarding school for Aboriginal students in Australia, issues of…

Access to secondary education for very remote Northern Territory Indigenous students is limited. Although many students attend distant boarding schools, very few stay to complete Year 12 (the final year of secondary school in Australia). Few families and communities are fully engaged in the whole transition process. This paper describes a case…

The Inland Xinjiang Senior Secondary School Class Policy (Neidi Xinjiang Gaozhongban Zhengce, hereafter the Xinjiang Class Policy) was executed by China's Ministry of Education (MOE) in September 2000. It allows and funds middle school-aged students, mostly ethnic minorities from southern Xinjiang's impoverished rural and nomadic regions to attend…

This longitudinal study aimed to survey over a 12-month period, the mental health and wellbeing of new incoming students transitioning to a boys' only boarding school. An online self-report questionnaire was used to investigate the perceptions and pre-transition experience of new incoming Year 7 students (e.g., while still in Year 6) prior to…