SWAN Hill North Primary school welcomed its newest additions last week as the kindergarten children attended two transition days on Thursday and Friday.
School principal Campbell McKay was delighted that enrolment numbers had increased for the 2016 year.
“We usually see around 30 preps starting with us each year and we have 44 enrolments for 2016 so that’s a significant increase,” he said.
Mr McKay noted that NAPLAN results for the 2015 year showed the school was excelling academically.
“There has been a perception in the past that our school hasn’t had an academic focus and that is changing due to our NAPLAN results,” he said.
“In 2015 our Year 3 results were well above the state average.”
While the changes haven’t happened over night, its an onward-and-upward approach that the school is taking to ensure that the past six years of work continue into the future.
With 200 children enrolled, the school was fortunate to be able to offer smaller classroom sizes right through the six years of school, according to Mr McKay.
“Our classes are all 20 – 21 students per class which makes an ideal learning environment for children and it’s not just for the first few years, it’s right through to grade 6,” he said.
For the children commencing grade prep in 2016 it is an exciting time. Aaron Gadsden was taking part in Christmas activities and showed The Guardian where his bag will go next year.
It may be a different story for the parents come January 28, but for now, the children appeared not to have a care in the world.
