Welcome to Karumba State School’s 2007 Annual School Report. It has been a pleasure for us all to take a step back and really look at where we have come from to appreciate where we are. This is especially true when we are talking about our students. Behind the results is the effort and improvement that is sometimes overlooked or forgotten.

Karumba State School is situated in the base of the Gulf of Carpentaria, at the mouth of the Norman River in the Carpentaria Shire. Normanton is our nearest community 73km away, while the closest major centres are Mt Isa and Cairns, all considerable distances by road. Karumba State School provides a multigrade co-educational education from Prep to Year 7 for 62 students from this town with industries based around tourism, fishing, including prawning, barramundi, and the necessary related industries.  Mining has also been firmly established in Karumba by way of a de-watering plant for the mining company Zinifex. Zinifex also offers families attractive packages, which bring a lot of families to the community and our school.

2007 has been a very rewarding year in a lot of ways; the growth that the school has undertaken these past years is exciting and very pleasing. The school Literacy Plan still generates a lot of interest from outside parties.

The most pleasing thing that I can report on is the continued overall improvements in our school opinion surveys. As a principal I place a lot of value in these results, and the results this year indicate that the school community is working together for the betterment of our students. The results also show that the overall satisfaction in the school has increased significantly to show that we are above state benchmarks in all performance areas.

Karumba State School is a P-7 co-educational state school. It is situated in the Mount Isa District of the Northern Region of Education Queensland.  The total Karumba Enrolment in 2007 was 59 students.

At Karumba State School we strive to achieve our mission through an innovative future orientated curriculum and by working together to equip our students with the skills and knowledge – cognitive and cultural, social and linguistic - that have power and salience in the world.

Our distinctive Karumba State School design uses three learning groups P-2, 2-4, 5-7. The purpose of our schooling is to provide enhanced preparation for children before they enter high school so that they can achieve more in these early years and set the foundations for success in school.

Research shows that by ten years of age, students have formed beliefs about school and about themselves as learners. These beliefs are influenced by their relationships with teachers, their skills in Literacy and Numeracy and Information Communication (ICT) and Technology and their relationships with their peers and family. Therefore, our purpose, encompassing Prep to Year 7, is to provide an enhanced learning platform that builds basic skills such as literacy, numeracy, ICT and relationships so that students can achieve more, succeed more and enter further schooling with positive beliefs and experiences about themselves, about schooling and about learning.

Students are provided with opportunities to continuously investigate four key questions whilst maintaining a central focus on high levels of Literacy and Numeracy:

Who am I and where am I going?

How can I make sense of, and communicate, with the world?

What are my rights and responsibilities in our community?

How do I describe, analyse and shape the world around me?

·       Many of our students also took the opportunity to enter in a range of Academic Competitions such as the University of NSW Competitions. Results in these tests have been the outstanding.

·       Our students have many opportunities to participate in a range of sporting carnivals such as:

o         Term 1 – Croydon Touch Football & Eisteddfod

o         Term 2 - Burketown Rugby League and Normanton Athletics Carnival

o         Term 3 - Doomadgee Soccer and Softball Carnival

o         Term 4 - Karumba Festival of Sports (hockey and basketball)

Currently we have 34 computers throughout the school. All computers are networked and have access to the internet and library resources on them. The Intranet is available from the Admin computers. The multimedia room consists of 6 Apple iMacs and 3 Apple eMac computers, and allows the students to create and record music, edit video and manipulate photos.

At Karumba we have a strong commitment to the development of each individual child so that they may fully develop their interests, abilities and talents in a safe and supportive environment.

It is because of these beliefs that we:

1. Continue to view our School Behaviour Management plan, with the staff, parents and students. As a part of this ongoing review we will:

_ Develop a Code of Behaviour for students

_ Ensure our expectations are clear and communicated to all

_ Ensure our practices are aligned with our beliefs and that practices are consistent

_ Ensure our communication practices are effective

_ Provide behaviour management professional development and training for staff

Karumba State School has a strong community involvement with parents and community members giving up their time to help with school activities. These include community partnerships, fundraising, and sporting events. Parents, staff and students are proud of their school and have a strong sense of ownership and belonging. School morale is a strong characteristic with students and staff proud to represent the school and be a part of the decision-making processes of the school.

An important program that we run at Karumba State School is our Social Skilling Program “Stairways”. “Stairways” is a whole school approach to social skilling and works alongside our Responsible Behaviour Plan for students. Using a team approach, staff work together to encourage students to display acceptable behaviour in the school environment. Behaviour concepts are presented on parade each week by our Year 7 leaders and taught and practised each week. The use of proactive language and modelling good behaviours is a major focus in the program.

Students are also supported by visiting Guidance Officer, Advisory Visiting Teachers and other Education Queensland Support Services. Other agencies that also support our students and community include North West Allied Health Service, and Community Health. The Local Police Service, Clinic and Carpentaria Shire Council all form a strong bond with the school to assist with the development of our students.

Our school opinion survey results indicate that 90% of our parents and students are satisfied with the overall social climate at our school. The percentage puts us above state and like schools benchmarks.

At Karumba State School parent involvement is encouraged and appreciated. We have an active P & C Association. During the school day many parents volunteer their time to support our students in aspects of reading, writing and craft and some also offer their time in our busy little office.

Parent teacher interviews and celebrations days have become important events in our calendar and are a great opportunity for parents to share their child’s successes with their child and the teacher and both are very well attended at our school.

Our community actively participates in the school through attendance at monthly Parents and Citizens meetings, voluntarily supporting in the up-keep of the grounds and in classroom/co-curricula activities. Timely newsletters, student-teacher interviews and regular contact foster this partnership.

Involvement of the P & C committee with school and school outcomes are core to operations of the school. The P & C association is very active and supportive, and is consulted and involved in the direction of the school through collaborative decision-making.

Reporting to each set of parents occurs twice a year through parent teacher interviews. It is at these parent teacher interviews that report cards are given to parents and explained in depth.

The ‘Karumba Crier” is the school’s newsletter and is sent out to parents and community every fortnight. It posts both school and community notices and informs parents of what is happening at the school. The “Karumba Crier” is also sent out to all the businesses in the community, keeping them well informed of what is happening at the school.

School parades occur on Mondays and are run by our Year 7 leaders. School news, class items, student social and academic progress and student awards are all celebrated during these parades.

·       The total funds expended on teacher professional development in 2007 was $11065.38

·       The major professional development initiatives are as follows:

·       Mandated Education Queensland professional development including Code of Conduct and Student Protection.

·       Syllabus Implementation – QCAR, Essential learning’s, OCATS.

·       Micro Skilling and Essential Skills

·       Social Skilling workshops including Behaviour Management, Code of Behaviour and Values Education

·       Literacy Workshops including THRASS, Running records, Appraisement Training, Gulf Network Meetings

·       Senior First Aid, Green Licence for Swimming, Athletic Coaching Level 1 Track and field

·       Prep Training

·       ICTs and Computer Training