Situated within the City of Casey, 10 km southeast of Dandenong, Â鶹ÊÓƵ provides a Prep to Year 6 program for its over 430 students. Our student population is made up of families from over 60 different cultural backgrounds which provides great richness and diversity in our school community which we value highly.
Our motto: Persistence, Creativity, Excellence, reinforces our aim of encouraging students to never give up, be flexible in their approach to problem solving and to strive for excellence in everything they do. Teachers focus on building the skills that will equip students with the ability to manage themselves and their relationships with others, understand the world, and become productive members of society.
At Â鶹ÊÓƵ, we place great importance on providing a rich, varied and challenging educational experience for our students. To ensure that all students progress at their optimum level, teachers know their students well and understand their learning needs; focus on building strong literacy and numeracy skills and have high expectations of all learners. In support of an increased focus on literacy, the school has developed intensive literacy programs tailored for specific areas of our school.
At Prep Level, students participate in small group Oral Language sessions 4 times a week. This program is led by a qualified Speech Pathologist. They also build initial letter sound and reading skills in the Little Learners Love Literacy Program. For Grade 1 to 4, every student in participates in small group literacy tuition every day. This program moves from establishing basic decoding skills to building high level comprehension skills. Our Grade 5 and 6 students continue to build on their comprehension skills while participating in Reading Circles where groups of students collaboratively analyse texts of increasing complexity.
Students in all grades also participate in STEM activities each week. This program provides opportunities for students to consolidate their learning through the use of hands on activities linked to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Students use the design cycle to solve problems linked to their own knowledge, the school as well as the wider community.
We believe that given the right opportunity and support, every child can learn. All teachers work hard to ensure that the achievement level of every student, in every classroom, will grow at a rate equal to or better than the expected growth for students in a school year.
The school provides access to digital technologies across the school through networked classrooms, a desktop computer lab and a large fleet of iPads.
During 2017 the school underwent a major rebuild. This included the construction of our STEM centre that includes an Science, Arts and Media space and a new learning centre that houses 8 flexible use classrooms. These facilities opened for the 2018 school year and now complement our existing learning centre creating a very modern and well-resourced school environment. The school has extensive sporting and playground facilities including a gymnasium, large playing fields and multiple playgrounds. These wonderful facilities have enabled us to achieve regular success in Inter-School Sport at Network, District and Zone levels, winning championships in Swimming, Athletics, Cross Country and Rugby League.
The school has received accreditation as a Sunsmart School, an Asthma Friendly School, a Waste Wise Energy Saver School, a SWEP School (School Water Efficiency Program) and is a Sustainable School. We have a major solar installation which was funded by the National Schools Solar Program which further adds to our focus on sustainability.
We are proud of our achievements in building a positive and supportive learning environment and are an accredited ‘Be You’ school. This framework is supported by students participating in weekly Social and Emotional Learning sessions that follow the Bounceback and Respectful Relationships programs to build a practical understanding of positive mental health and wellbeing and promote relationships and a sense of belonging and build emotional resilience.
Our values of Respect, Cooperation, Friendliness, Best Effort and Equality underpin everything we do and provide the basis for building a high level of connectedness within the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Community.
