St Paul’s Lutheran Primary School in Caboolture has been announced as a finalist in the Primary School of the Year [non-government] category in the 2018 Australian Education Awards. The winner will be announced at a function to be held in Sydney in August.” This national recognition is an affirmation of the incredible people who make up our community – students, parents and the staff,” said Principal, Anton Prinsloo. “St Paul’s is not about any one person, any one program or a culture of empire building – it’s all about the children and what is best for all the students in our care.” He went on to say that this recognition is an affirmation of the outstanding learning programs, the contemporary learning philosophy, and numerous opportunities on offer at St Paul’s. “We are a smallish primary school involved in programs and providing offerings normally associated with large primary schools. Every week, without fail, our school newsletter is filled with acknowledgements, celebrations, and stories of our school community. Key to this are strong, honest, trusting and very transparent working relationships which the school has with its parent community,” he said.

St Paul’s has, over the past 5 years, been at the forefront of transforming its teaching and learning philosophy to research-based innovative primary school teaching and learning programs to ensure improved student engagement and ultimately improved student outcomes. The school has during this time introduced a 1-1 iPad program from Year 1 -6, dedicated flexible learning spaces in the senior school, consistent flexible learning frameworks for literacy and numeracy from Prep – Year 6 as well as Inquiry Learning Framework across all year levels. The school also differentiates across its learning programs for all the students, meaning that they don’t prescribe to a one size fits all mindset when it comes to delivering the Australian curriculum.

Mr Prinsloo said that high quality whole staff professional development, the exceptional staff which model an attitude of selflessness every day, growing a culture of it’s okay to make mistakes, conducting parent workshops and keeping the parents informed about their child’s journey at St Paul’s underpins the culture which is our community.