About our school

Situated in a beautiful seaside bay, the picturesque Wallaroo Primary School boasts a heritage listed building and a long 130 year history, while also boasting a staff offering the most current evidence based teaching methodologies. With the school values of Respect, Care, Pride and Persistence underpinning the behaviour of students, staff and the community, children leave Wallaroo Primary School with the ability to continue their educational journey with the knowledge, skills and understandings to be active and informed citizens.

The school has a strong focus on literacy, numeracy, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) and student well-being. Support is offered for learning and well-being through programs that include strong intervention programs based on explicit teaching practices including but not limited to phonics, Quicksmart, Cars and Stars, Signpost maths, Mental maths and Spelling Mastery. The skills attained through the programs are then applied to real life problems and cross curricular integrated learning. Students are challenged to stretch their thinking through the use of higher order and critical thinking skills.

Local walks, school excursions, camps, projects, Festival of Music Choir, performances and the like, are utilised to support extending students in their thinking while exposing them to what is possible.

The students are positively encouraged to be involved in decision-making processes about aspects of the curriculum and school life. This is done through class meetings, Student Representative Council and School Captains, Sports Captains and sub groups dependent on specific events. The SRC is linked with the management team and our Governing Council. The school provides After School Sports and Out of School Hours Care programs for local families. We are affiliated with the local Northern Yorke Peninsula SAPSASA program that provides sporting opportunities in cricket, netball, tennis, soccer, basketball, football, athletics, hockey, swimming and cross-country

Our vision

At Wallaroo Primary School, we pride ourselves in supporting our children become competent and capable learners that have a strong sense of belonging and community. All educators, teachers, student support officers, and Governing Council members lead by example in the areas of wellbeing, equity and excellence and learner agency to support each child to be an effective learner.

We believe we have the collective responsibility to ensure we create learning environments that enable a culture of agency.

The following areas of focus include sub elements and indicators that drive our planning and programming:

  • Wellbeing: Belonging and safety, Resilience and persistence, Cognitive engagement.
  • Equity and excellence: Knowledge, skills, competencies and capabilities, Aboriginal learners, Inclusion, Breaking the link between background and excellence.
  • Effective learners: Curiosity, Creativity, Meaning making, Strategic awareness, Metacognition and self-regulation.
  • Learner agency: Voice to agency, Partners in learning, Discernment and judgement.

All children at Wallaroo Primary School have individual goals for Wellbeing, Literacy and Numeracy and are provided with opportunities to regularly work 1:1 with their classroom teacher to review, reflect on evidence and co-construct new goals throughout the year.

The Australian Curriculum General Capabilities are at the forefront of our work, the areas including: Critical and Creative Thinking, Digital Literacy, Ethical Understanding, Intercultural Understanding, Literacy, Numeracy, Personal and Social Capability.

As a collective we work with our families and the wider community to offer all children a supported, contextualised and differentiated curriculum where each child’s voice is heard and each child has agency in their own learning journey.

Our values

  • Pride
  • Care
  • Respect
  • Persistence

In supporting quality outcomes and a passion for lifelong learning, all our staff have been trained in the proactive wellbeing Berry Street Education Program. This is where children are taught to self-regulate and seek to understand their own strengths. This builds a growth mindset for learning, along with skills that will benefit them throughout life.