The teaching staff in the Inaburra are professional, dedicated and dynamic Christian educators who hold a passion for developing the capacity of students throughout their educational journey.

Welfare: Our welfare staff are committed to the general well-being of students and supporting families. This includes transitional activities such as Orientation Camp for Year 7, parent seminars to assist in areas such as cyber safety and curriculum choices. Inaburra offers students the services of qualified counsellors if necessary across both Junior and Senior School.

Learning Enrichment: A highly professional and dedicated team are committed to supporting, extending and enriching students through their learning.

Peer-to-peer leadership: Students are encouraged to actively support other students, regardless of whether or not they hold leadership positions. Some of the more structured leadership activities include buddy programs, supporting Year 7 orientation and peer-to-peer tutoring.

MEDIA RELEASE

Inaburra School unveils new learning spaces – the classrooms of the future

Inaburra School officially unveils its new learning spaces on Friday 21 July.

The Hon. Scott Morrison MP, Member for Cook and Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia, will unveil the new 4-storey building including a state-of-the-art Stage 3 Learning Centre for Years 5 and 6, a Senior School Learning Commons, additional facilities such as STEM room (for integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics classes), a new glass-walled Principal’s Office and Junior School sensory playground.

The new facilities form part of the ongoing transformation of Inaburra’s built environment, recognising that in order to produce students equipped for the 21st century workforce, the School’s learning environment needs to remain progressive, contextual and flexible.

“This is a major step forward in our desire to shape life-long learners who will contribute to society,” said Principal, Mr Tim Bowden. “Our emphasis, however, is not the building itself but rather what students and teachers will experience within the four walls”.

The need to remain ‘ahead of the curve’ in the education sector has been a major driver of this building project. “Current students will be required to adjust to a work environment that continues to be dynamic and ever-changing,” stated Mr Bowden, “The future is as uncertain as ever and we are preparing our students for careers and roles that do not currently exist. After much investigation both locally and internationally we have leveraged elements of research and practice that we are confident will deliver an exceptional learning experience for students across the school”.

THE STAGE 3 LEARNING CENTRE
The Stage 3 Learning Centre for Years 5 and 6 is designed to enable Stage-based teaching; there is one class with 112 students and five or more teachers. The large open-plan space is differentiated primarily through furnishing, creating smaller areas for groups to experience individual work, collaborative work and direct instruction in groups from ten to 112 students. Rather than a highly-structured and regulated classroom that aims for compliance, this space cultivates student engagement through the alignment of the furnished environment with the learning activity taking place. This might include virtual conferencing, flipped learning or collaborative projects. The Learning Centre also features a STEM/STEAM room for ‘hands on’ science experiments, technology workshops and MAKING (cooking, tinkering, model construction).

THE SENIOR SCHOOL LEARNING COMMONS
The Learning Commons is a space designed to bring together the functions of library, studio, individual study pods and seminar zones in a single community gathering place. Students in Years 7-12 can engage in self-directed, individual ‘cave’ or collaborative work and are able to exercise agency in their choice of location and furniture, whether selecting an individual desk, a booth, a high table or a communal lounge. Flexibility is the key, enabling each student to arrange their workspace in a way that facilitates the activity of the moment. The Commons provides an experience akin to contemporary tertiary education facilities. In dispensing with a traditional classroom structure the Commons encourages collaborative learning where staff adopt the role of mentor or coach rather than teacher.

The Senior School Learning Commons: Pod chairs for students to concentrate on individual ‘cave’ work. Photo: Stuart Wood.

The Commons also facilitates an in-demand After-School Study and Peer Tutoring Program that accommodates approximately 150 students Monday to Thursday each week.

“Both the Commons and Learning Centre have been furnished with a priority on flexibility, mobility and variety. Swivel chairs, semi-circular and rectangular tables, and lounges are all able to be easily deployed in a variety of configurations, as best meets the learning needs of the student,” said Principal Tim Bowden.

NEW PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE
Appreciating that the Principal’s role is pivotal to the daily life of the School the decision was taken to move the Principal’s office to the centre of the campus. The new location is highly visible to students as they move around the grounds, and has established the office as an active core and connection point for all members of the School Community. Glass walls allow students to see and be seen, they serve to make the Principal’s role more transparent and physically incorporated into the fabric of the Inaburra learning community.

JUNIOR SCHOOL SENSORY PLAYGROUND

The new sensory playground is designed to encourage exploration and discovery. The open space includes organic features such as a water course, sand pit, step logs and rocks encouraging children to engage in similar play to that they would experience in the natural environment. Emphasis is placed on tactile, natural elements to engage students’ fine and gross motor skills and capture their imaginations in a fun and interactive setting.

NBRS Architects were commissioned to undertake the project. Their multidisciplinary practice, substantial experience and extensive research were key elements in the successful delivery of the new facility.

Inaburra teaching staff love the ‘elastic’ design of the new learning environments which perfectly suit the use of mobile technology and which encourage students to personalise their learning experiences. Teachers are also benefiting, as the new spaces enable them to use a wider variety of teaching and learning strategies like flipped and blended learning, on-line classes, small group work and team teaching – all powered by high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the school.

In 2016 Inaburra was ranked among the 40 most innovative schools in Australia by education sector magazine The Educator, in its Innovative Schools Report. The opening of this new facility continues Inaburra’s push to adopt progressive practices in its goal to establish a culture of world-class teaching and learning, where students are active participants in their educational journey.

The After-School Study and Peer Tutoring Program accommodates approximately 150 students for two hours Monday to Thursday each week. 

~ENDS~
For more information, please contact Monique Clement, Inaburra School Director of Community Relations on email: clementm@inaburra.nsw.edu.au Phone: 8525 2214

Notes to Editors
Inaburra is a leading Christian independent K-12 school located in the southern Sydney suburb of Bangor. With just over 1000 students it is small enough to create a close community of care but also large enough to give students the subject choice and resources to enable them to succeed. Inaburra was founded in 1982 and is celebrating its 35th Anniversary this year.

Inaburra School offers a number of scholarships. Please visit the website to find out more.

Inaburra's academic results can be found on our website.

Inaburra School is serviced by a number of bus routes. There are bus connections to Sutherland Railway Station and suburbs in the Sutherland Shire. There is also a dedicated bus route serviced by the Punchbowl Bus Company that operates in the St George Shire connecting the suburbs of Mortdale, Lugarno, Oatley and Peakhurst. This route operates two dedicated school buses in both morning and afternoon.

Quotes from Parents on what they value about Inaburra School:

Our children are well catered for in terms of their wide ranging interests and the Junior School Principal has always dealt with our concerns in a way that respected our beliefs as parents, balanced with the values of the school in general

My child enjoys school and has developed a good group of friends and enjoys going to school and the opportunities that they receive. I enjoy the fact that I am able to participate in many of the schools activities and have clear lines of communication and easy access to the Principal, HOJS and teachers.

Love the school, teachers and leaders. Nothing to add.

The welfare team are excellent in both the Junior and Senior school. The Junior school principal is open to discussion and promptly attempts to resolve issues.

The friendships and the community of the school from the teachers, students and parents. Never came across a place like this before.

I trust the school always puts my child's best interest first and foremost.

I most value the communication between the staff, children and the parents.

My daughter had a really great and caring experience being part of the Inaburra School life. Thank you.

The high academic level, the good values, the valuable friends with good values and upbringing my child has.

I appreciate the way my child has been known and loved as an individual, and how well he has been supported through his teenage years.

Knowing that my son has been valued as a person. It has been nice to be complimented on my son's manner in which he conducts himself. I have been very proud to say that my son was at Inaburra.

Quotes from Students on what they value about Inaburra School:

I can go and talk to anyone and they will listen and try to help me, all Inaburra students are there to support each other and there are many opportunities to be involved in at the school.

I am helped when I don't understand and I love the freedom about where we can sit each day and who we can sit next to. The trust has played a big part because I know that if I have a problem I can talk to any teacher and they will help me.

That the teachers and students are fun and we are always laughing.

I like the sporting facilities.

The friendships forged with my fellow students, and teachers.

The education I have received from the school to assist me with my future learning.

The good reputation Inaburra upholds within the community.

My friends, some of the teachers and what I have learnt in my favourite subjects, art, modern.

I love Inaburra, I love saying I came here, I love the positive experience I have had in my life at Inaburra.

The ability I've had to participate in music programs at Inaburra. Also the ability I've had to grow in and share with others my faith in Jesus, as well as encourage younger students in bible studies. Additionally I'll be leaving school with a hectic group of friends.

Welcome to the Inaburra community.

Since its beginning in the early 1980s, Inaburra School has built a strong reputation as a school of first choice in the Sutherland Shire and the surrounding areas. Inaburra continues to be a community in which every individual is known and loved – a place where every student is valued as a person made in the image of God. It is, first and foremost, a learning community in which staff and students learn with, and from, one another. While we seek to encourage all students to grow in their understanding, we recognise that students will need more than just knowledge and understanding to flourish today and into the future. They will need to become competent and confident learners, ready to learn, perhaps even unlearn and relearn, how best to engage in different activities throughout their lives.

Education at Inaburra, however, is not about ensuring that our graduates, as a consequence of developing their capacity to learn, are empowered to accumulate more resources over the course of their lifetimes. Our desire for our students is that they might become people of generosity rather than accumulation, humility rather than arrogance and compassion rather than self-importance. We seek to encourage our students to be generous in the classroom, humble enough to admit when they don’t understand something and compassionately supporting their classmates who are struggling with a particular concept or idea. As a Christian school, our focus is on the development of learning character. Staff and students alike are encouraged to become people who are gracious, compassionate and self-controlled learners, ready, willing and able to be a blessing to those around them now and into the future.

You would be very welcome to come and experience for yourself the life and ethos of Inaburra School.

Dr James Pietsch became Principal of Inaburra School at the start of 2018. Prior to commencing at Inaburra, Dr Pietsch was the Dean of Professional Development and Learning at St Luke’s Grammar School in Dee Why where he had previously been Head of Mathematics. He has also held positions as the Dean of Residents at New College at the University of NSW, and as a lecturer and tutor in educational psychology at the University of Sydney. He holds a doctorate in educational psychology and brings a wealth of experience in education and leadership to his role as Principal.