#59 - From Reluctant Homeschooler to Community Builder with Corinne Smith from KinHub

Corinne Smith describes herself as a "reluctant homeschooler". Someone who never planned to be home educating, but who found herself there after her child experienced School Can't from preschool onwards, through multiple school settings, including Montessori.

Rather than retreat, Corinne founded KinHub,  a registered charity in Sydney's Inner West. Kinhub is a a community built specifically for kids who don't fit into mainstream school and the families who are holding it all together alongside them. In this episode, Corinne shares:

• What School Can't looked like for her family, from difficult goodbyes at preschool to being carried through the school gate
• The role PDA played in their journey through mainstream and Montessori settings
• How they approached deschooling and why she thinks it matters more for parents than for kids
• The financial realities of stepping back from work to homeschool, and supports that may be available
• What KinHub actually looks like — and why it's built the way it is
• The Unseen, Unheard, Unstoppable art exhibition that gave 35 kids a public voice

This one will resonate with families who are weighing up homeschooling and feel like they're about to lose everything that came with school. And it will inspire anyone who has wondered whether they could do something useful with a very hard situation.

About Corinne and KinHub

• Email Corinne: hello@kinhub.org.au
• KinHub website: kinhub.org.au
• KinHub on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KinHubAu/
• KinHub Art Exhibition in the News: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-20/sydney-school-cant-children-exibit-artwork-part-of-kinhub-scheme/106576750

Government Benefits for Home Education and Distance Education

• Assistance for Isolated Children Payment (NSW) - https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/assistance-for-isolated-children-scheme
• Jobseeker Payment, Exemptions for Principal Carers (Home Education and Distance Education) - https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/exemptions-from-mutual-obligation-requirements-for-principal-carers?context=60097#homeschooling

Challenging the Education Orthodoxy

• Video: Do schools kill creativity? (Sir Ken Robinson, TED talk) - https://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY
• John Taylor Gatto, (Book) Weapons of Mass Instruction https://www.amazon.com.au/Weapons-Mass-Instruction-Schoolteachers-Compulsory/dp/0865716692
• John Taylor Gatto, (Book) Dumbing Us Down https://www.amazon.com.au/Dumbing-Down-Curriculum-Compulsory-Schooling/dp/0865718547/
• Sir Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica (Book) Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education https://www.amazon.com.au/Creative-Schools-Grassroots-Revolution-Transforming/dp/0143108069 

Transcript

Leisa Reichelt 0:05

Hello, and welcome to the School Can't Experience Podcast. I'm Leisa Reichelt, and this podcast is brought to you by the School Can't Australia community. Caring for a young person who is experiencing School Can't can be a lonely and isolating experience. But today's guest has taken that challenge and turned it into a vibrant and creative group of young people and their parents who are finding community through exploring alternative paths for education. We are joined by Corinne Smith, who is the founder of Kinhub based in the Inner West of Sydney. Corinne's an experienced, albeit somewhat reluctant, home educating mum after her child experienced School Can't. Corinne describes the mission of Kinhub being to relieve isolation and loneliness by building a community where people feel like they can truly belong. I hope you enjoy learning more about Corinne and Kinhub. Corinne Smith, thank you so much for joining us on our episode of the School Can't Experience podcast. It's great to have you with us.

Corinne Smith 1:00

Thank you. Thanks for inviting me and great to chat with you this morning.

Leisa Reichelt 1:04

So we're gonna cover two main things today, We're gonna talk a little bit about your family's experiences with school-related challenges. Mm-hmm. and then we're gonna go in and talk about this amazing thing that you've done in response to those challenges, and what you've created in the world of Kinhub, and what we can learn from that as well. But let's get started by just discovering a little bit about you, Corinne. Tell us about yourself.

Corinne Smith 1:28

Look I think our challenges and our experience are very similar to lots of people out there in the community. We started at mainstream school and really had School Can't issues, I would say, from preschool. It was never easy for my eldest to separate from us, and we got to a point where they would attend preschool, but it was always challenging. It was always fraught with, you know, difficult goodbyes and a hard time for them to settle. So we decided based on that, that we would choose a smaller school to trial. So we chose an infant school just based around having the smaller class sizes, which we thought might, support their wellbeing a little bit more. And that was for kindergarten, which, we muddled through. It was difficult. We had a lot of restraint collapse at the end of the school day.

Leisa Reichelt 2:23

So restraint collapse when they get home from school and all the wheels fall off?

Corinne Smith 2:29

Absolutely, so yeah literally from the time they got in the car, there was just an absolute meltdown and any request to do anything was just met with, a disaster basically.

Leisa Reichelt 2:40

Yeah.

Corinne Smith 2:41

So we've learnt a lot since then but at the time we were, you know, not understanding what was going on. We were questioning our own parenting skills and whether we needed to be, you know, more firm. Did we need sticker charts? Did we need all of those things that traditional parenting will tell you is, is needed? But of course, not long into the next year, having them at home made it pretty clear to me that there might have been something else going on as well. So we started down the process of diagnosis for neurodivergence, which was confirmed. The end of year two came about and, that was the end of that cohort. So it was kindergarten year two for the infant school, and we needed to make a decision on where to go next. So we chose a Montessori school, thinking that that would probably be a better option in terms of the learning style. But it was also too rigid for their neurotype, and so we found that the School Can't just remained. And midway through that first year at the Montessori school, we decided that mental health really declining in a way that we felt was not safe. And so we made the decision to homeschool.

Leisa Reichelt 3:52

It's probably surprising for people to hear that the Montessori school had a rigidity to it. Like, that kind of feels like the opposite of what you hear on the advertising, right?

Corinne Smith 4:03

Yes, I think that's true, and I think for a lot of neurodivergences it can work. But where we were particularly dealing with PDA, which I'm sure a lot of people in the School Can't community are familiar with, and I think is quite common from just, you know, anecdotally that I notice in the School Can't community. So that particular neurotype was very definitely not suited to that environment, in our experience anyway.

Leisa Reichelt 4:31

Hmm. And so during this period when they were like year two, year three, and you said you were experiencing School Can't, what did that look like for your family?

Corinne Smith 4:47

Urgh. Yes. So

Leisa Reichelt 4:47

Sorry to, sorry to take you back there.

Corinne Smith 4:51

look, it looks like constant stress, I think. It looks like, you know, conversations the night before going back to school on a Monday. It looks like kids getting distressed to get out the door. It looks like them not being able to get dressed. argumentative, meltdowns- literally collapsing on the floor, not being able to get out the door. Having to be carried into the school gate. we forced our child to go to school, but at one stage they were asking us to carry them into the school gate from the car. Which was a real eye-opener for me because I thought to myself, "I've got this, kid who I would have thought would be worried about what other people thought of them being carried into the school gate." But that was literally their request and their only way of managing getting through that gate.

Leisa Reichelt 5:41

Sorry, let me clarify. whose request was it? The child's request? They were asking you to carry them through the school gate. Oh, okay. Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you meant the school was asking you to do that.

Corinne Smith 5:50

No, we always resisted that sort of pressure. We'd had a lot of pressure of, you know, "Oh, just leave them and walk away. They'll be fine." And we knew that that wasn't gonna be the case. And that's just not our style of parenting anyway. So yeah, it was, partway through that year where it just was getting so hard for them to attend school. They were spending most of the time in the office, because the environment in a sensory sense was just so overwhelming. It was the classroom, even though it was a smaller classroom, there was too much going on. The hall environment was just intolerable for them. They had to constantly opt out of anything that was in a larger group format. And so, yeah, we decided that as a family we would just make it work, that, one of us would stop working and start the process of homeschooling. Which, for anyone on the precipice of doing that, I think it feels like such an enormous decision make. And it obviously comes with sacrifices for everybody in the family. I would say for our family, the peace that that has brought to our family is immeasurable. The ability not to have that dysregulation and that, nervous system elevation constantly has meant that my child has capacity for other things that they want to do and other areas of learning that they want to engage in. So it's definitely been the right choice for us, both from the perspective of my child's learning style, but also for us as a family to have a more harmonious family life. it's made a huge impact to us in that regard.

Leisa Reichelt 7:35

I'm gonna drag you back in time again, Corinne.. Tell me about your life, right? Because I think you hinted at the massive change that School Can't can wreak on not just the kids' lives, but the parents' lives as well. What was your life like before School Can't became a factor, and what was it like as it started to impact it?

Corinne Smith 8:04

I'm an entrepreneur at heart, with my own neurodivergence at play. And so I've always run my own businesses. I taught singing for a decade and had a singing business. When I'd had enough of that and started to have kids, I decided that, I was gonna go into the world of tea-making. So created a business where we used to wholesale tea. We used to manufacture it. We had two shops that were retail and cafe outlets. We ran the Sydney Tea Festival, the Melbourne Tea Festival. I like to be busy and I like doing creative things, and so stopping those things was really challenging because I think anybody who becomes a mother knows that its very difficult to find your own identity in, in amongst motherhood. And I think to hold onto your identity when you're managing School Can't at the same time is particularly challenging. and I think that, for me, having sold my businesses and being at home, managing homeschooling was a real shock, you know, to my system. I'm, I'm not really that parent that just kind of potters at home and bakes and, you know, sets up Pinterest-worthy activities for their kid. that's just not me, and it doesn't, meet my needs as a human being. So I think that's probably where the pull came to start something, to use those skill sets that I'd developed over my working life. I could see we were outside of the school community, and was great in one sense, but devastating in another. You know, we'd developed a really strong, tight-knit community. I really liked the people around us. I really liked the milestones and those experiences that you have as a parent within a school system, and to be outside of that is incredibly isolating and just for the kid, for the whole family. we were missing out on chats at the school gate. You're missing out on, shared experiences. You're missing out on all of those things that make you feel like you're part of society. So the combination of, just yearning for something else for me, not just to be a homeschooling parent, but also looking around and seeing, this is a really growing issue in our community. What can I do to try and, you know, make a difference here? is what led me to starting KinHub, which is, an organisation that's now a registered charity, supporting kids who are experiencing School Can't or following alternative learning pathways and/or navigating neurodivergence. So, yeah, it was a really hard time to find myself in amongst that and to work out, you know, this is great, this really works for my kid, but what about me?

Leisa Reichelt 10:59

I wanna talk much more about Kinhub soon. But I wonder, you hinted before at that idea of like people who are on the precipice and, things are not going well with school, their kid's not doing well, but there's a lot to give up, right? Your work, financial stability, that inbuilt sort of relationship and structure that you get from school. Can you talk a little bit about like how you made the decision of when it was time to kind of make the call?

Corinne Smith 11:37

I mean, first of all, I would say I've got an incredibly supportive partner that really makes that possible, and I know that there are a lot of people in our community navigating this in a single parent arrangement. And I think I do recognize the privileged position that I am in to be able to even have homeschooling as an option for my family because I think it's genuinely not for a lot of people, and that is a incredibly hard wall to be up against. You know, when you see that your child might benefit from this as an option, but you just literally cannot make it happen. And I think just to that point, I would say, for us in New South Wales, people may or may not know that there's the Assistance for Isolated Children payment, which is not a huge payment, but worth looking at. it's a term-based payment for people that can help with educational expenses for children who are isolated, and who come to homeschooling because a medical diagnosis, and that can be anxiety through to a neurodivergence or, other reasons for isolation. There is also a JobSeeker payment that if people need to register for, then their mutual obligations, meaning that they don't need to report for attending interviews for jobs if they're homeschooling. But in terms of us coming to that decision, it was really about, I mean, it's a- You know, cost-benefit analysis, right? And I think you look at your child's mental health and wellbeing, I mean, there's not really anything else that trumps that. So, for us, it was a difficult decision, but it was really the only decision given the fact that we could manage to make it.

Leisa Reichelt 13:17

Very good context and good advice in terms of getting that additional financial assistance where it's available to you as well. How did you get your head around home education? What was your journey into home education?

Corinne Smith 13:32

I mean, our journey into home education started with COVID. And so that was a really interesting start because we worked out very quickly that that model of school at home was never gonna work for us. You know, my child resisted any type of, you know, teacher-student dynamic that we tried to uh, show them. And so pretty early on in that COVID experience, we realised that we needed a model that was very much child-led and very much centered around what they were interested in, which I've later come to learn is, you know, we call it unschooling in our approaches. I think, you know, the process for us after COVID when we finally legitimately registered for homeschooling was we deschooled first, you know, both for the purposes of our child, but also for us. We realised when we first started homeschooling that we really needed to just have a break from any type of formalised learning and schoolwork. And so that process of deschooling for us was, the recommendation is 12 months, and I think that's a really good recommendation. That's definitely what we took to just take all the pressure off. There was no pressure to do anything, to be anywhere. We had nothing in terms of extracurricular activities that we were engaging with. It was just literally a process of recovery. I would say, that deschooling process was so important for us, too, to start to realise that actually we can learn anywhere. And that for us as parents, sometimes we need to reflect on the fact that, school is one way to get an education, but it's not the only way. And so the more we dug into that for ourselves, I think the more we felt comfortable that this was a valid option to take our child into this next phase of their life without setting them back. Because I think that's always your fear as a parent. You're like, I can take them out of school, but they're never gonna amount to anything," or, "They're never gonna get into uni," or, "They're never gonna be successful." And I think once you step back from that and you start to look at actually what does success mean, what does learning mean, why are we learning what we're learning in schools anyway, how can I better set up my child for learning success given their neurotype, given their passions, given, everything else that I know intimately about my child? And so, yeah, the deschooling process I think is more important for the parents than it is for kids. And I think from there for us, because we'd had that level of school trauma, really had a period of two years to get out of burnout. And I see this commonly in the community. I see people whose children, once they have resigned to the fact that they need to become reluctant homeschoolers, as I call them, it's often a period of two years before kids can get out of that burnout. And so, you know, for for a lot of people I see, that two-year period looks a lot like kids saying no to doing things, kids wanting to spend a lot of time in their bedrooms, kids wanting to spend a lot of time on devices. And I feel, having seen that so many times now, that that is part of the process for people, and for kids, that they need that time of absolutely zero expectations, zero commitments to actually recover their nervous systems. And what I see happening after that two-year mark is that they start to become alive again. They start to want to engage in things. They're happy to follow their interests again. They can, you know, show up and, and exist in a world that perhaps is, you know, often unfriendly, for their neurotypes.

Leisa Reichelt 17:26

Corinne, you talked about deschooling as being this period of time where there are no expectations. But my experience is that that's a world that you have to create as a parent, right? Because there are expectations. Like you still have to, particularly in New South Wales, but in plenty of other places as well, you still have to satisfy the Department of Education that the right things are being done?

Corinne Smith 17:52

Yes, and I think part of the de-schooling process is understanding that you can meet those requirements in a couple of different ways. And I always think about the preferred way for our family and for children with a similar neurotype is to almost reverse engineer the curriculum. So, you know, I, as the homeschooling educator, know what those outcomes are. I don't need to have those conversations with my child necessarily, but I can see what they're interested in, and I can see what they're learning, and I can reverse engineer whatever they're doing to tick off those outcomes and tick off those curriculum requirements. And so I think that's the stressful thing for parents is, and that is part of that unlearning process. It's like, it's the approach doesn't have to be approach as you would take for school. I don't need to deliver the same, guided curriculum to my child who may not be interested in those things any way, shape, or form, and who it's gonna actually cause distress to get them to show up and do that work, versus having a look at them, providing opportunities, you know, strewing ideas around that connect back to the curriculum that they're actually interested in. And I think, you know, so many AI tools out there now which make that really easy. You you can reverse engineer things, I think, which is a much better way to have a more flexible homeschooling approach, which is the one that works for us. Not to say that some people don't do school at home, and that works beautifully for their kids. You know, I think some kids need more structure, and some kids need a, a more rigid framework, and that works well for them. In our experience, that did not work for our kid. We've been programmed to think that there is only one way to do real learning, and I think that is the critical part of de-schooling, is to read about know, why we think that way. Why, why is it that we have that strong belief? And to start to maybe question that belief and look outside of that. And think about us as adults and our way of learning these days, what we prefer. Do we prefer to go into a classroom and be talked at for an hour? Or do we prefer to go on our own learning journey and discover what we're passionate about and to follow those little rabbit holes, and to deep dive into areas that we're really interested in? Is that, actually a better way to learn?

Leisa Reichelt 20:11

Some would say yes.

Corinne Smith 20:13

I think actually the... a lot of the research says yes. And, and also I find, too, you know, trying to tap into my own passions and interests. I think there's nothing quite like your kids sort of watching you struggle to build something or create an artwork or, you know, anything else for them to sort of get interested and want to have a go at it, too. I read a great article by Kristy Forbes recently just about, you know, the fact that she, she has to engage in her own learning, and that really inspires her kids to learn as well, and I, and I believe that as well.

Leisa Reichelt 20:51

I think, what you said before about this idea of being at home, at home educating your kids and feeling as though that then becomes your entire life is, it's a bit scary. It's also a bit of a risk that you do let it become your entire life.

Corinne Smith 21:09

Yeah, I agree. I think you have a choice though ultimately whether you take that role on reluctantly, and you spend the rest of the time that you're home educating feeling resentful about it or you just have to, take it on and see the best in it. I think, sometimes we are backed into a corner into the choices that we have to make to keep our kids happy and safe.

Leisa Reichelt 21:35

Mm.

Corinne Smith 21:36

And I think then it's just a question of trying to make the most of it.

Leisa Reichelt 21:40

So you have certainly done that, I think, in terms of the way that you have taken a difficult situation and turned it into hopefully something that is creative and interesting for you, but certainly beneficial for the wider community. Tell us a little bit about how did Kinhub become a thing?

Corinne Smith 21:58

We'd already been home educating for a couple of years by then, and the meetups are great. We'd gone to lots of different meetups all over the place. But I could see a need for something a little bit more scaffolded, even just insofar as like having a place to sit that was out of the rain if it was raining on any given day or somewhere to make a cup of tea or, get some craft materials out or have an activity. And so I had, I guess, in my mind what it was for me that looked like- You know, the perfect thing for us as a family, which was somewhere that supported me, but also my child, and provided opportunities for my child to make new friends and to have those sorts of experiences that I felt that they were missing out on from being, you know, home educated. So, that was kind of the impetus for the idea. And then I did a bit of an expression of interest around our local area, which started off as one single park meetup, and then kind of grew into a fully fledged community where we meet, often twice a week. We've got a venue that we reside in once a week, thanks to, the local youth center. And then we meet a second time during the week out in the community somewhere. But just the ability to have a space is a bit of a game changer. It does definitely bring about more of a sense of belonging for both parents and kids. And it gives us an opportunity to do the sorts of things that we couldn't necessarily do if we were just doing a park meetup. So a lot of the sessions at KinHub are, all of them are flexible, first of all. Kids can come and go as they like. If they start doing something and then they decide the vibe's off, they can just walk away. There's no explanation, no apology needed, no feelings of guilt required. So it's very much built around what we needed as a family, and it's very much built through a PDA lens. So the demands to participate are not there. They're just strewn about, and people can attend flexibly. So, any given day we'll have a drama mentor there, we'll have a street art mentor, and at the moment we've also got a film mentor. So kids can come and go from those areas and engage with those people in a way that suits them if they're interested. Otherwise, if they're not, they can just play a game of pool with a friend or a parent. They can play some ping pong. They can sit on the lounge and read a book or play a board game. So there's lots for people to do. Or they can hang outside in the park as well. We've got a basketball court outside and a park for younger kids. But there's lots going on, and it sort of looks a little bit like a chaos environment, but there's sort of quite a tuned symphony of activities going on that supports a really broad age range of kids from five through to 15 plus. But also supports their parents too, because we know from our own experiences and also from people in the community that it is a really hard space to be in and that our parents need as much support as our kids do.

Leisa Reichelt 25:01

Yeah. The parental support is mostly informal and just through being able to connect with other people in the similar situation?

Corinne Smith 25:08

Yeah, I think we really can't underestimate that feeling of chatting to someone and thinking to yourself, "Oh my God, this is not just me." The ability to speak to people who affirm that your approach is the right one and that that's the approach that works for their kid too, and even though it's not what people in the mainstream would suggest is the right way to parent your kid or to get them to go to school, we know it works. And so I think there's that sense of relief when you hear that, I'm not alone in this."

Leisa Reichelt 25:42

Tell us a little bit about the population of KinHub now. Like, how many families or how many kids are involved, and what's the typical sort of pathway that brings people there?

Corinne Smith 25:53

So often we'll have kids who attend while they're actually still experiencing School Can't. And so, you know, maybe they can attend one day a week or maybe they haven't attended for weeks sometimes, but they're starting to attend KinHub. so often there'll be conversations with families around, you know, what the future will look like, what some alternative learning pathways might look like. Conversations around, you know, different homeschool models that work for other people in the community. And so all of that shared knowledge I think is really vital to people who are very early in the journey. Then we'll get some people who are, you know, they've been homeschooling for years and looking for a community because they themselves need it, but also their kids need it. People who are very confident in their homeschooling approach, but are really looking for opportunities to be with community and have a sense of somewhere that their kids can feel like they belong. And what we find is, you know, obviously there's a lot of different neurodivergences in amongst those pathways for a lot of people. And so that tends to be the cohort. So as I said, people who are experiencing School Can't or following alternative learning, distance learning, homeschooling, and/or navigating neurodivergence. So that intersection sometimes between all three can be tricky, but lots of us have walked that same path and can have those conversations and, and provide support on that informally when, when people come along. At the moment, got I think 35 kids coming along every week. So that's 35 kids and 35 adults. So it's a, it's like hosting a party every week I feel.

Leisa Reichelt 27:40

And this is in the inner west of Sydney, yeah?

Corinne Smith 27:43

Yeah, we meet up in Marrickville. People can do a trial pass or they can register for the term to come and, we do a 10-week term. We take off school holidays Mostly because I run it voluntarily and I just need a couple of weeks to reset and get ready for the next term. Yeah, it's a three-hour session on a Tuesday in Marrickville and as I said, people can come along and they can literally sit on the lounge with headphones on if that's what feels right for them on any given day or they can have a game of pool with a friend or a mentor or a parent. And engage in anything else that takes their fancy. So often there'll be, an art experience on that day or sometimes it'll be a STEM activity. For example, this week we've got our street art mentor there spray painting T-shirts which will be pretty cool. We've done lots of really interesting things. I know that for a lot of people they look at that and they think, "Oh, well that's just recreational." But again, when you start to look underneath the surface what you see is actually some really deep learning going on and particularly for kids who need practice with the social skills, there's a lot of practice in that as well and we've often got people coming in from outside of the community to talk to our kids about things that they would miss out on. We recently connected with Consent Labs to come in and chat with our kids about consent because it's a really big issue that our kids are not in school and they're not getting this sort of education, particularly around what's going on in social media at the moment. And so having the opportunity to have those conversations and have them as a group is really important. Anti-racism education is another one that we looked at recently. We've done some first aid with the kids so it's a real mixed bag and it's often driven by the kids. I meet with them and get their input about what they want to have at KinHub because essentially if they don't want it there it's not gonna work. So, it's important especially that our young people actually feed back and and tell me what they want to see there as well so that I can facilitate that as best I can.

Leisa Reichelt 29:49

That is definitely an amazing and very energetic and creative community. You should be very proud of what you've built. I thought it was really interesting when you mentioned that people are bringing their kids there whilst they're still experiencing School Can't before they've flipped over into that home education experience. And one of the reasons I thought that was a really smart thing to do is because that shift to home education is not just a challenging one for parents. A lot of the time it's a really challenging one for kids as well. And I know it took me months to get my son to the point where he was willing to contemplate it because it felt like such a personal failing on his part. To be able to connect with a vibrant community like that of other families and other kids who have made the same choice and who are obviously awesome kids, must be very reassuring for the young person in that journey as well. I

Corinne Smith 30:47

think absolutely, its been really interesting to hear the stories of some of our kids who are there as well. We did a podcasting project last year, and to hear the stories from the mouths of our kids, and we're hearing those things, you know, so many of our kids want to go to school, you know. My kid wanted to go to school. It wasn't that they didn't want to go, and it's, that they can't, as you know. And so that's the case for a lot of kids who are sort of in that halfway point, feeling like that is a failure that they, you know, "Everybody else can get to school. Why can't I?" So when they come into an environment where it's set up for success for them, you know, we've got sensory spaces, we've got activities that are delivered in a way that are neuro-affirming and trauma informed. So to come into a space like that and have that reassurance of, "Oh, actually, it's not me, it's the environment that I'm in that's causing this issue," is a game changer, and I think so important for our kids to realise that actually its got nothing to do with you. It's all about the environment that you're in that is not set up for success for you.

Leisa Reichelt 31:55

KinHub had a amazing art exhibition recently, I believe. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Corinne Smith 32:05

One of the reasons why I set us up as a charity with DGR status in the first place was so that I could apply for grants, because I really feel strongly that it's super unfair to be pushed out of systems that don't work for our kids, only to have to pay for things that do work. I've kept it free and low cost for as long as I absolutely can, but I knew that to make that work, I would need to be able to get some grant funding. So we were successful with getting some Inner West Council grant funding to run this exhibition, which we called Unseen, Unheard, Unstoppable. The kids spent the first term working with art mentors. They worked with, a pottery teacher, they worked with a drawing teacher, they worked with a composer so they could create this soundscape. They created over 65 artworks to go into this exhibition, which was so successful and really such an interesting insight into their experience. Watching them go from this moment of, "Why am I doing this? What am I creating? What is an exhibition?" To the opening night where they saw it all on the walls. We had the ABC come in and do interviews with them, and they could actually see that full journey and see themselves represented in a creative space and the creative landscape of Australia, which is where these kids don't often see themselves represented. So for me, it was so important to hear from them and to represent them in a way that was really positive and really affirming, and shows that they've actually got things to say that are really insightful. I think when you walked around that exhibition and you read those title plates and you could read the words of these kids and why they delivered the artworks that they did, and how that reflected back to their experience of being marginalized and being outside of systems and, all of the stuff that we've talked about today, Yeah, it was incredible.

Leisa Reichelt 34:04

Yeah, that's so inspiring and so great. I think, just to really articulate and communicate and validate that experience that so many kids are having.

Corinne Smith 34:14

Yes, absolutely, and so important for young kids to see themselves out there. You know, that visibility is just so important.

Leisa Reichelt 34:23

Yeah, I think there's so much shame associated with this experience that keeps people hidden So you can go through this and really feel like you're the only one experiencing it, and that's clearly not the case.

Corinne Smith 34:36

That's why it's so important to get in early because if we can get in early and we can create those connections and, continue that sense of community and belonging for people, both kids and adults, then we're not seeing that transfer of kids and adults into other harmful systems. It's well known that pathway from School Can't through to other harmful systems, mental health, youth justice, out-of-home care. So I think that early intervention where we keep kids connected and we keep them feeling like they're part of something bigger really supports their mental health and supports them through into adulthood.

Leisa Reichelt 35:12

Corinne, you created Kinhub because you felt like there was a gap in the community that needed filling. If there are some grown-ups listening who feel a similar gap where they are, what's your advice to them to think about, maybe making something for their community?

Corinne Smith 35:34

I mean, I would encourage people to get in touch because I think it would be crazy to have done all the work on Kinhub and getting it to where it is now and not be able to scale it and get it to reach out to more people. I think, I'm very open to people using the Kinhub framework and sharing that knowledge. We're nearly two and a half years in now, and so we've tried a few different ways of operating and really come up with, I think, something that works really effectively for both adults and kids in the community. So yeah, I think, be prepared for a lot of hard work. It's a lot to manage a community and it's a lot to manage, you would know this, a lot to manage people when they're in distress and going through a really challenging time. So, I think, make sure that you're in a position where you are feeling like you've got some resilience there yourself. But yeah, reach out, get in touch. Happy to share the workings, happy to talk to people if they're interested in doing something in their areas as well. very, happy to share.

Leisa Reichelt 36:33

That is so very generous of you. And Corinne, for those people who are listening who are kind of at breaking point where, you know, they're still trying to make school work and it just feels like it's getting harder and not easier, what words would you have for them?

Corinne Smith 36:50

I think, my first thing is you're not alone, and this is not your fault, and it's also not the fault of your child. You're doing the best that you possibly can in a system that's not built for you in most cases. Reach out to, organisations like School Can't Australia because there is support out there, and there are people who have walked this pathway and can help bring you along to the other side where it feels, much lighter. A much happier place to be.

Leisa Reichelt 37:21

Fantastic. Thank you so much, Corinne. I really appreciate you taking the time to share with us today.

Corinne Smith 37:26

My pleasure, thanks for all the work you do in the community too.

Leisa Reichelt 37:29

Well, I am sure I speak for many others when I say thank you again to Corinne for all the effort she puts into building this amazing community and providing so many opportunities for young people and their parents who find themselves on the outside of mainstream education. I've put some links to resources that Corinne has recommended in the show notes, including a few books that can help really challenge those established mainstream ways of thinking about education. You might find that interesting if you have some time. If you think someone else might find this podcast helpful, please take a moment to share it with them now. And I'd be so grateful if you could subscribe or give us a rating or a review. All of these things make such a difference in helping us get this podcast in front of more families with School Can't kids who have not yet found our community and all the information and support that we share. If you have some feedback for us, maybe a suggestion for a future topic or a guest, perhaps you've been inspired to share your own School Can't lived experience story, you can use the fan mail link in the episode notes or drop me an email to schoolcantpodcast@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. If you are a parent or carer in Australia and you're feeling distressed, please remember you can always call the parent helpline in your state or call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Please don't hesitate to reach out for extra help. Thanks again for listening. We'll talk again soon. Take care