In 2024, Yalari took a bold step forward with the launch of a new pilot, Yalari Ready, an initiative that had been talked about for over ten years.
Designed for scholarship applicants who show strong potential but need additional academic support, Yalari Ready offers a full year of intensive literacy and numeracy learning. The program helps students build the confidence and capability they need to thrive at leading secondary schools in all areas, including the classroom and beyond.
In 2025, SCOTS PGC College hosted a Yalari Ready class of ten students from diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia. For Sharyn Bomford, a long-serving teacher at SCOTS PGC, it was also a year of firsts. After 20 years mostly in Prep and Year 1, 2025 marked her first time working in middle school, her first extended engagement with boarding, and her first year teaching in the Yalari Ready program – an experience she now describes as “the best opportunity that I have ever been given in my career.”
What began as a quiet announcement at the end of 2024 has since reshaped her professional life. In a Monday morning staff meeting, teachers were told that a Yalari Ready class pilot would be established and a teacher sought for the role. Sharyn was immediately drawn to the idea. Having grown up overseas while her father worked in Foreign Affairs, she knew what it meant to step into unfamiliar places, cultures and systems.
“On that Monday morning, I just thought, ‘Wow, that’s something different. I’d like to give that a go,’” she recalls. She went straight back to her Year 1 classroom and asked to be considered. Within a few weeks, she was invited to take on the role.
Over the course of the school year, the ten Yalari Ready students at SCOTS PGC took part in a tailored, intensive literacy and numeracy program within a dedicated classroom space. Each student brought a different family story, community connection and starting point in their learning. As they settled into the program, they also navigated boarding, new routines and life away from home.
Throughout the year, Sharyn saw the students’ confidence grow—academically, socially and personally. What began as a class increasingly felt like a family.
“I had to keep reminding myself that we were a classroom and still part of a school, because the lines started to cross into a bit more like family,” she reflects. Being called “Mum” in the classroom became a regular occurrence, and a sign of the trust and connection that had formed.
With a strong background in literacy and reading, Sharyn initially saw her role as helping students strengthen those foundations. But she is clear that the learning went both ways. The students arrived quiet and unsure of their place in a new environment. Over time, they started to speak up, ask questions and take risks in their learning.
“They came in very, very shy, and one of the things they taught me was not to speak as much, but rather to listen more,” she says. Known in her own family as someone who can “talk under wet concrete”, Sharyn jokes that her mother hoped teaching would mean she’d run out of words by the end of each day. Yalari Ready invited a different approach: slowing down, listening deeply, and making space for students’ voices, stories and connections to community and Country.
Education as a pathway to opportunity is something Sharyn has always believed in. Her own parents were the first in their families to attend university and to work overseas, and she grew up with a strong sense that education can open doors. Through Yalari Ready at SCOTS PGC, she has seen that belief mirrored in the aspirations and progress of her students. By the end of 2025, all ten SCOTS PGC Yalari Ready students had been offered places at three of Yalari’s partner schools to commence Year 7. Sharyn is proud of where they have arrived and confident they are prepared for what comes next.“They’re happy. They’re confident. They’re resilient. And they know that they’ve always got a home to come back to”
“They’re happy. They’re confident. They’re resilient. And they know that they’ve always got a home to come back to,” she says.
That idea of “home” has been central to her work with the students. Throughout the year, she has reinforced that their first home—family and community—remains at the heart of who they are. But she has also encouraged them to see Yalari and SCOTS PGC as additional places of belonging and support.
“Their home is their home, but also Yalari is home and now SCOTS is home as well,” she explains. “So they’ve got all these connections that they can draw on throughout their life.”
Sharyn is quick to emphasise that this work is never done by one teacher alone. The success of Yalari Ready at SCOTS PGC, she says, reflects the collective effort of many people walking alongside the students: boarding staff, classroom teachers, school leadership, Yalari staff, families, sponsors and communities.
“It’s a privilege to get to know the Yalari family, work with the Yalari staff, and connect with a whole other community that is within our school,” she says. “You realise very quickly that you’re part of a bigger team around these young people.”
Looking ahead, Yalari Ready will continue at SCOTS PGC with a new intake of students in 2026. The focus remains clear: building strong foundations in literacy and numeracy through tailored support, encouragement and culturally respectful relationships, so that students can write their own stories, tackle new subjects with confidence, and step into boarding school ready to succeed.
For Sharyn, the first year has confirmed that when schools listen more, work closely with community and stay responsive to each student, young people are better able to meet academic expectations and feel grounded and confident about what comes next.
