General News
20 March, 2023
Prep program proud part of Bealiba schooling
With a single student enrolled, a rural school located 45 kilometres from Maryborough is proving that its prep program is a small but mighty force. Following varying prep admission rates over the years, the Bealiba Primary School now has one...
With a single student enrolled, a rural school located 45 kilometres from Maryborough is proving that its prep program is a small but mighty force.
Following varying prep admission rates over the years, the Bealiba Primary School now has one student, Izebelle, enrolled in its foundation course after having none in 2022.
Currently the school has a handful of children studying across prep to year six — and for its principal and teacher Carol Taylor, having smaller classes is beneficial for the kids and their individual needs.
“We’re able to work with all of them one-on-one so we work at their level and progress them as they need and it’s really good,” she said.
“The kids play together, they work together and they help each other so it’s always really positive.
“They understand each other’s needs and they’re respectful of each other.”
While Izebelle is in the early stages of her educational journey compared to the other students, Ms Taylor said the staff have managed to combine learning efforts across different years.
“Izebelle is learning to read, learning to understand numbers, problem solving and construction in her play. There’s a lot of talking, lot of new languages and new books,” she said.
“Small schools do operate differently — we might have the one topic that everybody’s working on, but then we gear it to the different ability levels and the skills that are needed to be developed.
“The kids also teach each other things and if Izebelle watches the others doing something different she’ll try it out as well and give it a go so they’re challenging each other as well.”
Apart from the last couple of pandemic affected years, the school has continued to connect and socialise with other institutions — exposing its students to a range of programs.
“We organise excursions once or twice a term to introduce them to different things that they then come back and talk about or write about and since we are part of a cluster of schools, we’re connected with them as well,” Ms Taylor said.
“Our swimming program is linked with Tarnagulla, our sports and arts program is also connected with the cluster so there’s that additional interaction with other kids.
“It’s been difficult with COVID where we couldn’t do things but now we’re able to get out and it works really well.”
Bealiba Primary School, Ms Taylor said, is not lacking on any fronts.
“We've been really lucky — we have everything. The kids have one-to-one laptops and iPads. We’ve got funding for mental health which helped us to create the art therapy program and we’re able to teach the kids Japanese,” she said.
“It’s a small school and it’s positive for the community. We’ve got a good bunch of kids, they’re great.”