Bobs Farm Public School

Bobs Farm Public School is a small two teacher Kindergarten to Year 6 school of approximately 35 students. It is situated in a semi rural area on the Tomaree Peninsula 45 kilometres north of Newcastle and 15 kilometres south of Nelson Bay and is close to beaches, bays and tourist attractions. The school is, in the words of parents in the written survey reponse, 'A truly community-oriented school with caring, loving and motivated staff that not only inspire our little boy, but myself and my partner as well. We absolutely love it!' and 'The staff go the extra mile in terms of making us feel part of the broader community and my child's results have been great!' Bobs Farm Public School endeavours to provide a caring and motivating environment and ensure that all students feel happy and secure. The school provides inclusive, extra-curricular activities to support student learning. We encourage each student to feel that he or she is a worthwhile member of the school and we welcome parents and volunteers to become part of the learning community. The older students are encouraged to accept the responsibility of looking after the younger students as a family would expect and, above all, the school aims to have fun whilst learning. NAPLAN results vary each year due to the small cohort of students.Strategies to improve numeracy results include K-2 practical maths workstations, Mathletics interactive online program K-6, maths at home game kits and parent workshops. A focus on spelling and participation in the online Spellodrome program and Premiers Spelling bee competition has resulted in improved spelling results for many students. Reading remains a constant focus with the language, Literacy and Learning Program ( L3) implemented in Kinder. Our home reading program is reinforced across the whole school. The Reading Eggs interactive program will be introduced in K-3 in 2012. Strategies to improve writing include explicit teaching, journals writing, class displays, publishing nationally in Jetsetter, public speaking notes, Blogs and emails. Outstanding features of Bobs Farm School include; small class sizes with individual attention, progressive teaching techniques, peer teaching, accelerated learning, individualised programs, new well resourced, air conditioned classrooms, sports/ football field with multi-purpose goal posts, two synthetic cricket nets, private school tennis court, new canteen, beautiful, lush, green playground where all students play together, specialist teachers in computer technology, art, reading assistance, high level computer technology classrooms and student learning and covered fixed playground equipment for all K-6 students. Technology remains an ever changing and important 21st century learning requirement. Our school has interactive Smartboards in each classroom as well as video conferencing facilities which are accessed regularly. One of our ongoing areas of development is for the local promotion of our unique school setting and being seen as the local school of first choice. We are a very community orientated school in a unique school setting. We consider out of area enrolments. As a small public school, our staff, parents, students and learning community are committed to a school that is second to none. We pride ourselves in thinking outside the square by designing and implementing inclusive and innovative learning programs where children will be engaged in purposeful learning.

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