The WA education minister hopes attendance will improve as the upgrades finish.
A remote school in Western Australia’s Pilbara will be the state government’s most expensive rebuild, despite having one of the lowest attendance rates in the state.
Roebourne, 1,550 kilometres north of Perth, has a district high school which teaches kindergarten to year 12.
In 2025, there were 141 students enrolled, but only one in four upper school students attended.
This averaged to 55 students across all year levels each day.
Cafe, performing arts upgrades
Fourteen-year-old Banjima and Ngarluma student Banjo Lockyer started year 10 at Roebourne District High School (RDHS) this week.
He estimated he attended school two or three days a week last year.
“I don’t like going to school, to be honest, I don’t like waking up early and just start doing work.”
His mother, Roslyn Armstrong, said it was hard to encourage him to attend, and she would like to see more facilities at the school for students to learn a trade.
The state government has contributed $73 million in upgrades, with works beginning in 2023, and last year, an extra $20 million was added by Woodside.
The upgrades are on track to be completed by September 2026.
The money has gone towards a cafe, a multi-purpose performing arts hall, science labs, music and drama classrooms, and a language centre.
Special audio systems in classrooms have also been installed for children who are hard of hearing, as well as showers and a laundry, plus yarning circles outside.
A 2021 public school review found the transient nature of RDHS and its low attendance rate to be its biggest obstacles.
Western versus cultural methods
Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi man Patrick Churnside said the funding was welcomed.
“It was good news, and a lot of the community was like, ‘Yes, we’re finally getting something for our community and the school,'” he said.
But Mr Churnside said in First Nations culture, time was not a construct they abide by, which impacted access to education.
“If there is time for education, it may not be in the set amount of time as the education system allows for an educator working clocked hours, which their system dictates or obligates them to.
“In a remote community, that’s not the instance.”
Low attendance, high support needs
Roebourne’s average high school attendance was 28 per cent in 2025, well below the 81 per cent average for WA.
While for primary school students, the average attendance was 50 per cent, compared with the WA state average attendance of 89 per cent.
The majority of students at Roebourne District High School identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
The Department of Education website shows remote schools in the Kimberley and Goldfields have similar if not worse attendance levels.
NAPLAN testing undertaken at the school in 2025 showed between 71 per cent and 100 per cent of students needed additional support, with no students exceeding expectations.
A non-Western approach to engagement
Roebourne-based charity Yaandina operate youth services in the town and have overhauled its systems after more Western-style ways of engagement failed to breakthrough.
“We tend to be more creative about it, and make it more focused on where the child feels safe or comfortable,” chief executive officer Emma Dumbrell said.
“[It] might mean taking them out fishing, just taking them for a drive and having a yarn.”
Ms Dumbrell said the current youth alcohol and other drug counsellor now had a full caseload with none of the appointments being traditional one-on-one counselling.
Education Minister Sabine Winton said the school planned to combat low attendance with a new outreach engagement program for “chronically disengaged students” and would take part in the “connected communities” trial.
“This significant redevelopment will provide a culturally appropriate environment, with the aim of boosting student enrolment through to senior secondary years,” she said.
Press releases and ribbon cutting
Nationals upper house member Julie Freeman, who has an office in Karratha, said the government cannot take a “build it and they will come” approach to education.
“I think the Cook Labor government has fallen into a real habit of funding things that they can cut ribbons on and have nice photo opportunities in front of,” she said.
“If only one in four children are actually turning up, then all the beautiful buildings in the world are not going to make a scrap of difference.”
Meanwhile, in 2024, Esperance Senior High School topped the list of most building defects of any public school in WA.
While a vision for upgrades was completed in 2000, funding from the state governments has never been allocated.
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