Schools are top of the class

Two schools in the City of Rockingham have taken out the top spot in three categories at the Western Australian Education Support Principals and Administrators Association awards.

Malibu School won the School of the Year award and Warnbro Community High School Education Support Centre won both School Leader of the Year and the Non-Teaching Secondary award.

Warnbro CHS ESC principal Kim McCollum, recipient of the school leader award, said the school had won thanks to the way the students were involved with the community.

“We have a significant number of students who go into work placement or into meaningful pathways in the community,” she said.

“It really is a whole school approach, our expertise is really recognised and we have trained hundreds of staff across the State in how we approach teaching and our methods to help the students succeed.

“We also learn about what others are doing and this feeds back into our school and helps us grow.”

Workplace transition co-ordinator Jacqui Jones, who won non-teaching secondary award, helps the students transition from a school environment into the world.

“It is great to see our ex-students out in the community, it is so rewarding knowing our students have the chance to live a life they want to,” she said.

Malibu School principal Julayne Charlton said winning the school of the year award was a great achievement.

“We put together a written application to nominate ourselves, then we were notified we were finalists,” she said.

“We had WAESPAA panellists pay our school a visit and interview parents, staff and the leadership team to make sure what we had in our application was accurate.

“We then found out we won at the presentation night, I do not think we would have won without the work the staff do in the classroom every day alongside the strong community partnerships which help increase our students’ achievements.”