Doing school differently
Tiarna McGee, Elanora State High School and Cooee GC Class of 2022 at Pottsville Beach, New South Wales.
The salty sea air dances around Tiarna McGee as she steps onto the soft sand of Pottsville Beach.
As a full-time lifeguard, Tiarna's used to an early start by the ocean; her office the many pristine beaches dotted just below the New South Wales border.
It's not a job she pictured herself doing—at least not before she started her school day the exact same way.
When Tiarna was in Year 10, she had low attendance, she found her subjects boring and she hadn't yet found her place. She briefly dropped out of school, unclear on the path she wanted to take.
Then her mum told her about Cooee GC, a Queensland Department of Education campus, run as part of Elanora State High School, that uses surfing as a vehicle towards student pathways and success in Years 11 and 12.
Tiarna didn't know how to surf, but it didn't stop her. So she waxed a surfboard and headed to the beach, determined to find her feet.
'It was the hardest thing I've ever tried. But I tried so hard 'cause I'm like, oh, I want to be in this school,' she says.
Students at Cooee GC start the school day at the beach with a 6am training session with a surf coach.
'It was hard to pick up the routine, but it's very useful—now I'm up early every day,' Tiarna says.
After surf coaching, students head to Elanora State High School for their Queensland Certificate of Education (QCE) core subjects from 9am to 1pm: English, Mathematics, Tourism, and Sport and Recreation.
Tiarna says her teacher, Matt Barber, would often base lessons and assessments on something relating to the community, and they'd go out there and do it.
'Probably the standout one was doing all the flood relief [in 2022],' she says.
'Matt always has his little connections. He told us about Project PARGO and how they wanted to do this with us. So we jumped in a van and maybe once or twice a week for a fair few weeks and went to Lismore and these really small farm areas.
'We couldn't even get to half the houses. We helped shovel out mud and that out of everyone's houses and then built water filters and showed people how to build them.'
The Cooee GC school week is catered to each student's unique pathway. On different days, students attend their chosen apprenticeships, traineeships, certificate courses or work that contributes to their QCE.
Many students choose to use their afternoons on school days for work, study, or training—or even driving lessons.
How Tiarna carved her path
Tiarna says she went through a lot of career changes and ideas of what she wanted to do.
'I did a Cert III in Business while I was there, and then a Cert II in Outdoor Sport and Recreation. I got to do scuba diving, which was pretty cool,' she says.
All Cooee GC students are required to obtain a Cert II in Public Safety and Aquatics (Surf Bronze Assessment). After completing the Surf Life Saving Bronze Medallion training, Tiarna continued to work towards Silver and Gold Medallions—setting the foundations towards her job as a lifeguard.
Tiarna says her teacher, Matt, connected her with the opportunity.
'He kind of didn't give me the option. He always saw your potential and then he just put you through things. I didn't want to at first, I was scared. But now I'm grateful for it, I have a full-time job,' she says.
For Tiarna, going to Cooee GC challenged her ideas of what she was capable of.
'A goal was to graduate, so that was pretty big,' she says.
'I didn't pass many subjects before going to Cooee. I then got high distinctions…in my subjects—I didn't think I could do that.'
Now 2 years out of school, Tiarna plans to study nursing.
'I like that aspect of lifeguarding, like the first aid stuff. So I thought I'd try it and give it a go,' she says.
As for surfing, Tiarna still loves to surf and aims to get out there every day.
Tiarna McGee riding a wave at a surf park during a Cooee GC excursion to Melbourne.
An idea built on the notion of an echo
Matt Barber founded Cooee GC in 2016, with the idea that students get out what they put in.
Previously a deputy principal, Matt took a leap of faith when he pitched the idea to the Department of Education and built Cooee GC from the ground up.
'Industry always told me that this is what kids needed, and what industry needed, to bridge that gap from school to real world.'
Matt says the 'why' behind Cooee GC came from bumping into past students outside of school, still floundering.
'It just didn't need to be that way,' he says.
Matt says they work closely with students, parents and caregivers to create a custom plan for each student's pathway, along with support to help them discover it.
'If a student displays tendencies towards the health industry, we would map out specific nationally recognised qualifications that they can do, that will then set them up to fall forward in the health industry and do the same with the trades,' he says.
'Ultimately it comes down to backward mapping and putting the pressure on the kids to come up with ideas of what gets them up in the morning, what are some of the things that they're interested in.
'So then when they leave school, they've got a greater understanding of not only what they want to do, but also where they can go to get further support.
Matt says there's a whole bunch of employability skills that surround students starting their day well.
'They arrive at the beach at 5:50am for a 6 o'clock start and the reason behind that is if they can turn up to school at 6, that they can turn up to a job site at 6; they can organise themselves the night before,' he says.
Principal's support grows program
Cooee GC teachers Matt Barber and Kasey Nicholas.
Matt says when Rochelle Lewis became Principal at Elanora), she noticed the range of qualifications and experiences that Cooee GC students had which allowed them to go out and be global citizens.
Rochelle saw the value in the Cooee GC approach to education and wanted to support it further.
'She looked it the program and said, 'Why can't more kids have these opportunities?', which was then the catalyst for us to be able to expand,' Matt says.
With Rochelle's support, the program has nearly doubled in size, reaching 46 students in 2025.
Elanora State High School teacher Kasey Nicholas began volunteering during the morning surf lessons and now he works alongside Matt to offer Cooee GC to more students.
Kasey says since he entered this flexible learning environment, it's been amazing to see the kids develop purpose with their education.
'They want to go out and get as many feathers in their caps as they can,' he says.
Cooee GC's success and unique approach draws students from all over.
Matt says they've had students anywhere from Agnes Waters to Yamba coming up specifically to be in the program to the point where they now get some international students looking to come over.
'We get job satisfaction out of knowing that when the students leave school, they're ready to go do that,' he says.
'That's about confidence. You can't just sort of open up a can and give a kid confidence, it doesn't work that way. You've got to put lots of little things in place, and it's about those little one percenters along the way.
'We think we've got a pretty good recipe that allows these young people to leave the school and flourish.'