A STATE award for a Rockingham education support centre provided validation that the school was on the right track with the services it provides for students and parents, according to principal Margaret Keen.
The centre, which is on the same campus as the Rockingham Beach Primary School, won the 10th annual WA Education Support Principals and Administrators Association centre of the year award earlier this month.
Ms Keen said she was stunned to receive the award and celebrated with 25 staff members who attended the ceremony, along with 400 education staff from all over WA at the Perth Convention Centre.
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READ NOW“We’ve been an independent public school for the last six years and we recently had a review that was outstanding,” she said.
She said the main criteria for winning the award was how the school interacts with its community and other agencies.
“We are a teacher development school and we provide training to other public schools throughout WA on working with children and families with autism,” she said.
“And we are really committed to our parents.
“We don’t just enrol a student in our school, we enrol the whole family and that’s how we approach what we do.”
She said the education support centre had 50 students and 36 staff and there were a range of shared events with the primary school, including assemblies and sports days.
“We are fairly high resourced with staff because our students all have special needs such as intellectual, autism or physical disabilities,” she said.
“It’s really quite a dynamic little school.
“We have a great team which is why we do so well here.”