Message from the principal

2008 was an immensely busy year with many successes for our students and school community. The school, staff and community continued to work closely together to ensure that our students had the best opportunities available.  Data analysis supported the high regard students, staff and parents have for the school as a dynamic educational facility.

Throughout the year, we had many highly successful events and activities which included:

ó      The end of year gala evening at the Town Hall where chills of appreciation were felt down the spines of many families to see the work that had gone into the data display which ensured that every child’s image was in at least one slide. The whole slide show was an awesome display of the opportunities available to our students. The quality and variety of performances from each year level demonstrated both the performing arts and fun aspects of learning.

ó      The Spell-a-thon which occurred earlier in the year than usual was a clear demonstration of support for our P&C’s fundraising efforts.

ó      To see our kids so well supported by our staff and families at the Maryborough Technology Challenge in September was inspiring.  Our students entered into many events including robotics, solar boats, young inventors, and the smilie push carts, with our school winning the section for most participation!

ó      Our classrooms were open to parents on many occasions ranging from Alien days in prep to the LOTE Olympics, medieval days, plays & productions and gardening programs.

ó      The school fete was a successful community and fundraising event.

ó      For the first time, our students and families were involved in hosting students from Kasukabe City in Japan, who then  participated in a range school and other activities. This exchange program was an amazing feature of the school year which helped our children to broaden their knowledge and understanding of both the local and global communities.

ó      An array of excursions including year two day camping, environmental and leadership camps, instrumental music experiences, and day activities took place with great benefits to students.

The school was once again supported by a hardworking and supportive parent community who provided ongoing financial assistance, community activities and volunteer labour to the school.  The close of the 2008 school year was marked by a change of P&C membership as we sadly farewelled a number of long serving families and wished them well in their endeavours as high school parents. 

Future outlook

2009 Priorities include:

ó      Completing the triennial school review to set strategic direction for 2010, 2011 and 2012.

ó      Implementation of the First Steps in Maths teaching and philosophy across the school.

ó      A focus on academic rigour and explicit teaching strategies.

ó      Embedding the use of information communication technologies across the school.

ó      All teachers years 4 to 7 completing the five day literacy training program.

ó      During 2008, our learning support teacher Mrs Collins worked tirelessly analysing our school’s data from the National Testing process which occurred in May.  The results were provided to schools in late October and for the first time we were provided with an excellent source of data which we used to identify patterns of strength and weakness in certain content areas across our school.  Specific professional development for teachers will occur so we can focus our teaching in a more explicit manner.

School Profile

Sunbury State School is proud to offer co-educational classes from Prep to Year 7. The school is located on the western side of the city of Maryborough in the heart of the Wide Bay Burnett Education Region.  We proudly serve a diverse community where the focus is firmly upon helping each individual to achieve their best. Our community is characterized by families from small rural farms, Maryborough City living, government housing, and “green change” families who have relocated to small acreage as a life style choice.  The positive relationships which  exist within our community with staff, students and parents is closely linked to the ways that we celebrate success and value different people working in different ways. Our student population is characterized by:

ó      15% Indigenous students,

ó      10% are students with a disability,

ó      30% have been identified as having a learning difficulty and are supported with a modified learning program.

We enrolled 350 students at the beginning of the school year from prep to year 7 and maintained 14 classes for the school year. Analysis of enrolment trends show a tendency to grow in enrolment throughout the year. Careful management of the year one and two cohorts will be required over the next few years as the number of enrolments in each cohort is low, less than half a cohort of year ones and not quite one and a half cohort of year 2 students. 

Curriculum offerings

During 2008, our school provided a range of exciting curriculum options for our students:

ó      Our drama program run by Mrs Puller skilfully combined the development of drama skills and the use of modern technologies, with children in every lesson using both the still and digital video cameras with the images then used to critique performances and skills being learned.

A comprehensive whole school home reading program with students rewarded for active participation by inclusion in the end of year water slide. 

Our prep program moved from strength to strength with teachers cleverly blending play based learning and academia.

Senior students were offered the opportunity to make a subject selection for one afternoon per week in term three with 8 teachers offering different subject choices.

Our leadership program moved from strength to strength and we introduced a new social program for our middle years called Friends for Life.

Our year five students continued to enjoy the interschool visits to Aldridge State High School to become science students for five sessions. 

Many of our senior students opted to dedicate some of their sport and lunch times be involved t in the senior dance troupe, who’s performance of High School Musical  was enjoyed by all.

Social climate

Our school continued to have a solid focus on providing a well disciplined learning environment where respect is expected, modelled and afforded to all within the community.  Our school’s responsible behaviour plan and processes continued to be effective with a balance between positive acknowledgment for the vast majority of students conducting themselves in the expected, appropriate manner and the implementation of lunch time detentions, suspensions, and behaviour improvement conditions to support children learn to make more appropriate choices.

Our 2008 school opinion survey results demonstrated significant parent satisfaction with our school’s climate with the school means higher than the state mean in all five questions related to this area. 80 % of parents responded that they were satisfied (or better) that the school is a good school (question S100). 

Students, staff and parents continued to be supported by our school’s awesome school based chaplain, Jess Gunn.

Involving parents in education.

Sunbury is blessed with a community of parents and care providers who do their best to support their children’s education.  In many cases this means active support for our school.  For example the 2008 school fete celebrated the involvement of more than 65 family members providing volunteer support leading up to and on the day of the fete.  It was a marvellous community event and raised $10 000 for the P&C.

At the enrolment interview with all new families, we discuss the open door processes for communication with our families, which are then followed through by action from our staff. 

Our weekly playgroup continued to provide both school families and new mums access to a unique quality play experience in our school setting. Dads always welcome too.

Parents are continually invited into the classrooms to observe or be active participants in their child’s class.  This is particularly evident and more developmentally appropriate in our junior years.

Sports day proved to be loads of fun with many parents joining in for the relay. 

Our new tuckshop convenor revamped the tuckshop processes and menu and continued to manage the tuckshop and merry band of volunteers efficiently.  Although we all know that many hands make light work, it is often difficult for families to commit to regular volunteer times.

Our school considers parents to be active partners in education and strives to find ways to include families in homework processes and home reading. Newly developed criteria sheets and task outlines were sent home to families to help them to understand the major pieces of assessment that their children were completing.