School Profile

Forrest Primary School is situated 35 km south east of Colac in the Otway Ranges. It has proudly served the rural community for 125 years. Our school has student enrolments drawn from the Barwon Downs, Gerangamete, Barramunga areas and the Forrest Township.

The school has extensive gardens and grounds providing active and passive play areas, and several well maintained play equipment areas. The grounds cover four hectares with an oval, a tennis/basketball court and a safe adventure playground with ample room for further development of play and environmental study areas. In 2009, National Schools Pride funding enabled us to build a new junior and senior playground, refurbish the external toilets and redo the lines on the netball/basketball court.

Buildings include the original building which has been refurbished as part of the Building Education Revolution and a well-maintained portable which serves as an additional learning space.

In 2011, the refurbishment was completed and staff, students and parents have access to a large flexible learning area and modern administration areas.

At Forrest PS we believe that children deserve the opportunity to fulfil their potential. We know this can best occur when children are actively engaged in learning tasks in a safe, positive and supportive environment, where individual assistance is readily available. Multi-level class structures are a feature of our school and pre-school, which encourages cross-age learning. To realise these aims we encourage community support with active participation.

The teachers work together in a purposeful and professional manner to plan and implement a curriculum, based on inquiry learning and the use of student data to personalise learning in order to strengthen and enhance each student's potential - academic, social and physical. The school is proud of its commitment to providing a wide variety of programs and activities to complement its strong core curriculum. Particular strengths are its Values ethos, use of technology as a tool to support student learning, commitment to the environment and intervention and enrichment programs which cater to individual student needs.

Teachers explicitly plan to embed ICT across all learning areas as a vehicle to engage students and to improve student outcomes. A range of learning technologies and Web tools are used to engage students and to connect them to each other and their learning. The school now boasts a device for each student and interactive whiteboards in each classroom.

Since the commencement of the 2000 school year, School Council holds the licence to run a Preschool, Child Care and Out of School Hours Care services in Forrest. This has presented us with new and exciting challenges, providing for the Forrest and district community an education package spanning Pre-school to grade 6.

The Out of School Hours Care program offered to students four nights per week is well supported. It has allowed many parents to work out of town and the same time keep their children at the local school.

Effective communication is a feature of our school. Fortnightly newsletters communicate school happenings and allow for local groups to advertise coming events. The School Magazine is devised and published by students, with all children contributing.

Forrest Primary School is firmly committed to providing excellence in education and is continually assessing school, pre-school and student needs for further plans and improving student outcomes.