Otford Public School

Established in 1885, Otford Public School is a small community school made up of three classes, caring for children and preparing them for the future. Our school motto is: We Learn and Grow Together. Otford Public School is dedicated to building a smart, engaging and innovative learning community that learns from and teaches one another, one that responds to students’ natural curiosity and shapes the way they learn today and in the future. The question we ask every day is ‘What is best for this learner?’ The answer requires: a mindset, skillset and toolset that empowers learning; unleashes talent; creates innovative learning opportunities; leads a culture of creative thinking and evaluation; one where all learners are engaged in the pursuit of excellence to teach and learn the curriculum. The school focuses on empowering students so that they may realise their potential in a rich learning environment, catering for the needs of individual students. Our teachers implement an integrated curriculum around STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) themes that aims to prepare students with future skills and citizenship, while maintaining a strong focus on literacy and numeracy across all key learning areas. Our community will grow as visible learners with a positive growth mindset to become: innovative, creative, successful and resilient; to think critically and creatively; to find and solve problems; to become active, informed and responsible local and global citizens. Staff, students and parents create and maintain a happy, positive atmosphere where we all strive to meet our learning goals together. Students think creatively and critically, act with initiative, interact with honesty, respect and creativity in an environment which values multi-age and flexible groupings. We have an active and involved parent community who support classroom learning and fundraise to supplement school programs and initiatives. We are an engaged member of the Seacliff Community of Schools, Wollongong North Small Schools group and have acted as a mentor leading a STEM Action Schools Project with 20 other DoE schools. We deliver collaborative programs and projects, share educational opportunities for our students and participate in collaborative professional learning activities for our staff.