Our whole school community and visitors continually comment on the warm, vibrant, optimistic, respectful and authentic culture of our school. We are proud of our school and our achievements and continually strive to improve.
As an Internationally Accredited School Parafield Gardens High School offers curriculum, resources and facilities of an internationally benchmarked standard.
The way members of our school community interact with each other is based on our foundational Values:
Respect: Be compassionate; treat others with understanding and acceptance. Care for the school environment.
Achievement: Be positive, participate and strive to be the best you can possibly be now, and for the future.
Determination: Persevere when things are difficult, it will lead to greater success. Be inspired to motivate yourself and others.
We believe in developing the skills and aspirations of all students.
We believe in challenging our students and have high expectations of them.
We believe all students should experience success in their learning.
We aim to promote and nurture the wellbeing of each student.
We aim to develop the concept and responsibilites of the "global citizen".
We aim that every student who leaves Parafield Gardens High School will have a pathway to a quality future.
Our absolute aim is to ensure that all students who enrol here have the opportunity to reach their potential.
Our school's Vision is "Quality Learning, Quality Futures"
The basic principles underlying all programmes at Parafield Gardens High School are Student Wellbeing, Learning and Pathways. Establishing Learning Support and Gifted and Talented Programs on these key principles takes into account the student's willingness to forge new links with their own learning and who are emotionally ready to move beyond their own personal comfort zone. Students are encouraged to make full use of the resources the school can offer. As a consequence, Parafield Gardens High School offers a variety of programs to meet the needs of different student learning groups.
At Parafield Gardens High School, students who require additional support or who have been placed on an NEP, work with both class teachers and a support manager. The role of the class teacher is to provide engaging curriculum programmes while the role of the support manager is to develop strategies which will support a clear pathway for each student under his/her guidance. The students who are supported in this manner fall into two main groups:
students with learning difficulties are those whose access to the curriculum is limited because of short-term or persistent problems in one or more areas of literacy, numeracy and learning how to learn;
students with learning disabilities are one small group of students with learning difficulties who because of the neurological basis of their difficulties, have persistent, long term problems and high support needs in one or more areas of literacy, numeracy and learning how to learn. These students do not have generalised intellectual impairments but rather demonstrate idiosyncratic learning styles which are determined by the nature of their specific disorders and inhibit their learning at school.
The School Learning Centre:
Parafield Gardens High School is establishing a learning centre which will help co-ordinate the different types of programmes and support the individual learning of students. A central concern of the Learning Centre is students' overall wellbeing. Care is taken to address their particular patterns of learning and their social and emotional circumstances.
The Learning Centre supports the School in maximising opportunities for students whatever their learning styles and potential. Individualised and group work sessions are offered to assist students who:
have learning difficulties of various kinds or whose styles of learning require a slightly different approach to that adopted in the regular classroom;
have exceptional talents, skills and interests related to part or the entire curriculum. In recent years, the Gifted and Talented spectrum has assumed greater importance in schools all over the world. Parafield has a number of highly qualified members of staff who can use multiple strategies to assist gifted learners. The Learning Centre will play a key role in gifted education at the School. In collaboration with classroom teachers, appropriate intellectual challenges and curricula are implemented to sustain and enhance students' achievement and motivation.
