School Facilities and Resources
Interactive White Boards
The School currently has eight Interactive White Boards (IWBs) across the school, including in the Autism unit. There is a board in every teaching area within the school which means all students have access to this excellent teaching and learning resource. The IWBs are electronic whiteboards that have a large image from a projector cast onto them. The boards are touch sensitive and can be controlled by touching the screen itself with a special pen. The boards act as large computer screens.
IWBs have numerous advantages over conventional whiteboards. The most important is that because the boards are touch sensitive students can actually manipulate and interact with objects and content on the board. For example, students can click and move labels around to match shapes with their shape name. The page can then be reset to allow other students to also have a turn. Work presented in this way is a great motivator for many students.
Any computer program that can run on our student network can be used with the IWB. This means that we are able to use all our existing programs with the boards.
Computer Lab and Student Computer Network
The school has a computer laboratory with 16 networked computers and a networked printer. All students receive one Information Technology (IT) lesson a week where student learning is focused on: developing general IT skills, improving research skills, and improving literacy and numeracy skills by using some of the educational software packages available.
The school has two separate computer networks. One is EDUnet, which is a teacher only network and the other is a seperate STUnet, which is a school managed network providing networked computers to students throughout the whole school. Most classes in the school have a bank of networked computers.
Library Resource Centre
The school has a well resourced library with large a collection of books available in both the fiction and non-fiction sections. There is a separate junior fiction collection which includes a large range of picture books. The students visit the library at least once a week as part of a library skills and book borrowing program. Students are permitted to have a maximum of two books out on loan at any one time. Students with good borrowing and returning records may have their maximum borrowing privileges increased through negotiation with the library staff.
Hall
All junior classes participate in Gross Motor (Gym) activities on a weekly basis. During these lessons students rotate through different stations. Gross Motor activites are designed to help students develop balance, coordination and basic ball skills. Students really enjoy these weekly sessions. The hall is also used for a range of activities throughout the week including sport, drama and dance. The large hall is also the venue for our fortnightly assemblies which are held at 12:15pm every second Friday.
Large Open Playing Fields with Established Trees
The school has large open playing fields which provide ample space for students to play during their break times. The playing fields provide plenty of room to allow games or activities such as cricket, soccer, football, runnning etc to be operate simultaneously in different areas. The ovals also feature large established trees that provide plenty of shade throughout the hotter months of the year.
Art Room And Kiln
The school has a specialist art room with a fully operational kiln. We currently have a specialist art teacher who takes classes for lessons throughout the year. The lesson focus is based on what unit the students are studying in their classrooms each term.
Science Room
The school has a dedicated science room/lab. Thanks to the work of our science teacher, Ms. Carr, the room is full of interesting items including a pair of turtles. The students study a whole range of topics with Ms Carr with some students working towards attaining Crest Awards from the CSIRO.
