Welcome to Andamooka Primary School & Children's Centre

Welcome to Andamooka Primary School &

Children's Centre

School Philosophy

Andamooka Primary School is a South Australian Government school located in the Far North of
South Australia. Nestled in the heart of Andamooka, we offer small, mixed-age classes for R-6
students with the key belief being the holistic wellbeing, both physically and mentally, of every
person, along with a strong focus on achieving meaningful academic growth for each and every
student.
Our whole school community promotes a mindset of dreaming big and embracing diverse
opportunities which values an individual students' search for knowledge and growth in skills and
life-long learning. We take pride in knowing our students as individuals, and feel privileged to be
able to shape every child as capable learners who know the purpose of their education and how
to measure their own achievement. Andamooka Primary School delivers a literacy and
numeracy-rich curriculum, aligned with the vision “a place where hidden gems are unearthed.”
Wherever possible, we endeavour to provide our students with access to ‘hands-on’ activities
and facilitate the time and space needed to use concrete materials that reinforce the learning
being explored.

Wellbeing

APS has a fully integrated positively aimed wellbeing approach which is always at the forefront of
everything we do. We are proud to be a ‘Berry Street’ aligned community and we incorporate a
five point learning zone scale into our language to assist everyone manage their own learning
readiness.
Expectations of learning behaviours and personal conduct are constructed together at the start of
each year, and strategies are explicitly taught as to how to restore any relationships that may be
strained from time to time. The opportunity to contribute to one’s own learning through actions
and voice is always built into all we do.
The school maintains high expectations of the entire school to care for each other and this
expectation is embedded in our school values, Respect, Relationships and Voice.

Literacy

As we know that proficient literacy is a foundational skill to navigate our ever changing world, the
development of this is a key focus for APS, as stated in our School Improvement Plan.
Core literacy skills are essential for learning across every curriculum area. Every day each
student has the opportunity to develop their literacy through a dedicated literacy block, which is
aligned to the Australian Curriculum. As with every learning task at APS, differentiation and life
centred contextualisation of the task, affords all students the best chance of growth in reading
and writing. We strongly believe in rigorous learning in our multi-age settings, and students are
encouraged to celebrate their successes.
We currently use the Read, Write, Inc. Phonics program four days a week throughout Junior
Primary which is a valuable tool to support through targeted intervention any literacy gaps in
students of all ages. Our staff are all trained in this approach and we engage the students in
small, targeted groups, at their point of need. Our staff embody a high level of pedagogical
knowledge and utilise effective evidenced based strategies to increase student achievement and
engagement in English.

Numeracy

While no-one can predict what the future will hold for our children, at APS we are certain that
there is a clear trajectory towards employment paths that require strong numeracy skills. To
develop strong numeracy skills requires the concurrent development of strong literacy skills,
particularly in the fields of problem solving and applied maths.
As such, our focus is ensuring students develop these skills and also have regular exposure to
problem solving opportunities to develop the investigative thinking skills and a love for challenge
in their learning.
Utilising the ‘Learning Through Doing’ approach we explicitly teach the ‘Big Ideas in Number’,
especially focussing on ‘Trusting the Count’, ‘Place Value’ and ‘Multiplicative Thinking’,

Finally,

It is such a pleasure to be part of this amazing community of passionate educators
and I warmly invite you to consider us as a place to nurture your student with an
individualised tailored approach to their unique educational needs. Please feel
welcome to contact me at any time to further discuss the possibilities.

Bronte Stanford
Principal