Wilson Primary School (5476)

School Overview

Wilson Primary School is situated in the peaceful suburb of Wilson, ten kilometres south of Perth City. The school catchment is bordered by: Manning Road, Albany Highway and the beautiful scenic areas of the Canning River, however this is a notional boundary and if places are available then students from outside this boundary are considered for placement. Property values in the area are quite high and many members of the local community are involved in professional occupations, attend Curtin University or are self-employed.

Wilson commenced operations in 1963 and will in a few years celebrate its 60th Anniversary. In the 2000's the school population peaked at over 350 students but reduced markedly when Year 7 students were no longer enrolled in Primary School. Currently, the student population is fairly stable at a little over 295 students, which includes our Kindergarten and Pre-primary programs. Our ideal size and placement in the centre of our community contribute to the strong family feeling and atmosphere which is highly valued by the students and their families. In addition to the Kindergarten and Pre-Primary buildings there are 8 classrooms, a music room, and well-resourced Library and LOTE (Indonesian) learning area in use. In addition, there are three smaller wet areas for art, ESL, instrumental music lessons and a variety of other activities.

The school is set in very attractive surroundings with many trees, shade and extremely well maintained gardens. There is a grounds and buildings improvement plan which has enabled continuing development and enhancement over the last number of years. This has been complemented by the shaded area extensions, funded by a federal grant and subsidised by the School Building Fund and P&C, and a maintenance upgrade during the last couple of years.

Wilson has an excellent reputation in the local and wider community and is also sought after by international migrants. The multi-cultural flavour of the student body adds to the richness and diversity of the clientele, a valued and celebrated feature of the school. The international flavour is further influenced by our sister school relationships with schools in Indonesia.

Our LOTE is Indonesian and this has given a special purpose to our language learning. We have also established an EAL/D (English as An Additional Language) program during the last several. The EAL/D Program has proven to be very successful across the school.

Wilson's Music program, along with the Instrumental Music program has contributed to a multitude of musical talent across the school. The choir performances and special concerts consistently attract excellent reviews at the One Big Voice Concerts.

Wilson has traditionally had a varied Physical Education and Sports program, with students competing in a variety of disciplines including Football, Netball, Soccer, Basketball, Cross Country, Golf other sports in the PE program, in addition to the usual swimming and athletics programs. These programs are supplemented by SEDA students that provide small group coaching. We also have an Active After School program that is very popular with students and placements are at a premium. Specialised play areas are provided for children across the school where they get to use a variety of games, building materials and resources during recess and lunchtime to enable children to be stimulated and catered for during their recreational breaks. These common school resources are cared for, maintained, set up and packed away by the students which fosters ownership and management skills and community spirit,

The school has a strong academic focus and the students achieve great results in comparisons amongst like schools using the NAPLAN testing results, however there is plenty of room for improvement. Students also achieve well in University online mathematics and science competitions.

In addition, there is an ongoing focus on the environment with our Water-Wise and Waste-Wise programs. These will be expanded further with an inquiry focus on sustainable environment studies. The school now has a substantial solar system which has greatly reduced out utilities costs.

All students are becoming more conversant with technologies and at Wilson we are involved in expanding the available technologies for learning for all students. There are two trolleys with 32 laptops and several computers available in each classroom for student and teacher use. Plans are in place to extend and enhance the range and number of learning technologies available in the school. All of our classrooms have Interactive Whiteboards or Interactive LED Screens installed. Ipads are in use in classes from K to Year 6. A multi-purpose practical learning space and room has been set up in the school to house our STEM support program where children get to study robotics and coding using brand new purchased hands on resources.

Sustainability is a key focus of the school and staff and students make good use of our newly established environmental studies learning area that includes facilities for recycling, composting and maintaining flower beds and frog ponds.

Wilson has a values focus and links activities to the 5 key values of the Australian Curriculum. One vehicle used to include students directly in values education is the Family Virtues Program. Key virtues such as respect, courtesy, self-discipline are discussed with students in class and these are reinforced at assemblies, through the newsletter and through student awards. There is a strong pastoral ethos with the more senior classes having buddies in the junior classes and a charitable and tolerant approach evident throughout the student body.

There is traditionally a strong community involvement at Wilson. The P&C Association is heavily involved in school activities such as athletics carnivals, colour fun run, Easter Hat Parade, Fun Run etc., as well as fund raising to supplement or finance school development projects or purchase resources. The P&C provides lunches twice each week throughout the year. 'The P&C group meets to make and prepare items for Mothers' and Fathers' Day sales for students to purchase. The Uniform Shop provides a very convenient service for the parents. The P&C also coordinates a P&C Disco for students during the year. School Board meets termly to discuss issues, make policy decisions and review school plans and reports.

The students at Wilson Primary School wear their school uniform with pride as it represents the caring school community, the sporting, musical and academic achievement throughout the student body.

This is a school with proud traditions, with an eye to the future and our place in the West Australian community and in the global community.