Welcome to Charnwood-Dunlop School. I hope you take some time to investigate our wonderful school. We opened as Charnwood Primary School in 1975 and renamed to Charnwood-Dunlop School in 2008 to reflect the inclusion of the then new suburb Dunlop into our priority enrolment area. Our school vision is:
‘Together as a community of staff, students and families we create a safe and encouraging learning environment where wonder and curiosity are nurtured, and every child is empowered to reach their full potential. We value diversity and build positive respectful relationships through effective communication.’
Our work at school is guided by our vision and our professional and highly accomplished staff work collectively to achieve this. Our focused and skilled teachers act as facilitators for learning, design and implement learning programs at student point of need and progress student learning.
Our contemporary learning environments are largely open plan and we have a strong culture to team teaching. Teachers work together to collaboratively plan learning experiences so that all students no matter which class they are in participate in well-designed learning opportunities enabling them to achieve the learning outcomes needed for each year of schooling.
Our Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL) approach to student engagement and wellbeing is a well-researched approach grounded in the concept that positive behaviours can be explicitly taught and should be regularly practised. Tied with a supportive environment can create desired behaviours. Our school expectation is that all students are positively engaged in their learning, they are safe and they are respectful.
We host the Belconnen Primary Introductory English Centre (BPIEC) where students who are newly arrived in Australia and speak a language other than English at home are welcomed for a semester of intensive English instruction before transitioning to their local primary school. The inclusion of the BPIEC provides a unique and valuable opportunity for all our students to develop intercultural understandings, create connections and develop an appreciation of diversity in our global society. The BPIEC is an important part of our school.
We build and maintain strong relationships with our community. We continually seek and respond to feedback to continue to improve. This occurs each year through formal means such as the school satisfaction survey and more informally through school requests for feedback and community generated commentary.
We have strong student leadership and voice with an active Student Representative Council and School and House Captains elected annually. These student leaders have an important role in the school gathering student opinions, advocating for change, and being community representatives for us.
We have strong connections with our feeder high school, Melba Copland Secondary School and we have students who participate in the Magellan Program an enrichment Maths and Science program annually. Our senior students are supported to incorporate technology into their learning with the provision of enough chromebooks for each student in years 3 to 6. Our junior classes use iPads to enhance their learning experiences.
We provide a rigorous and enriched learning program for students which provides opportunities for extension and enrichment through participation in International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS), a woodwind band for students in years 5 and 6,our Student Representative Council (SRC), and a variety of sporting opportunities including basketball, rugby league, netball and touch football gala days, full school carnivals for swimming, athletics and cross country annually.
If you would like further information or wish to visit Charnwood-Dunlop School please contact us on 6142 2680 and we will happily show you around and share more about our school.
Danielle Porter
Principal