Location ProfilePuckapunyal Primary School is located within the Puckapunyal Military Area, 10 km west of Seymour in Central Victoria. Our current enrolment is 210 students. The school is easily accessible and within walking distance of all homes on the Base. A balance of innovative and traditional curriculum programs is provided in a caring, well-disciplined environment, using the many excellent established school facilities and community resources.
Puckapunyal Primary School is a unique school in Australia. Children of Defence Force Personnel, stationed within the Puckapunyal Military Area, comprise approximately 65% of our enrolment, and annually up to 50% of the children transfer interstate and overseas. The new arrivals come from a diverse range of educational backgrounds (each State and Territory of Australia, UK, Canada, U.S.A., New Zealand, Malaysia and Germany).
Of note is the increasing number of children enrolling from the surrounding communities with around 35-40% of students now coming from non-defence families. The high level of mobility has a significant effect on the continuity of school programs, and it is a challenge of the school to minimise the impact of this on student achievement and wellbeing.
Having lost 80% of our school during a fire in early December 2020, we have recently rebuilt a state of the art main school building. We have large classrooms that have been architectually designed to foster a calm teaching and learning environment.
Despite our challenges, we have continued to embed a strong learning culture within our school where high expectations are the norm and academic success is valued and celebrated. Staff deliver a stimulating and differentiated learning program backed by evidenced based learning programs such as the Writer¿s Workshop model, 6 Traits of Writing program, Goodger Mathematics, and the SMART Spelling program. Students are active participants in their learning, are explicitly taught metacognitive strategies and supported to set and strive for personalised learning goals.
In addition to building academic skills, we emphasise the importance of nurturing the whole individual and deliver a comprehensive wellbeing support program underpinned by our 10 school values. We focus on developing student voice and agency as well as fostering the social and emotional intelligence of all our students. We provide authentic leadership opportunities to our students and are significantly involved in our local community such as through Commemorative services: eg Dawn Service, Shrine of Remembrance observances, Remembrance Day.
Physical education is a major focus and we are proud of the diverse sporting opportunities we provide to our students. Triathlons, Swimming, Cross Country, Basketball, Bike Rides, etc.
A Specialist Visual art program is delivered weekly, and students also participate in weekly LOTE (Indonesian) lessons.
Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. Teachers work in close partnership with colleagues, w
