Coombabah State School is a P-7 state primary school located in Coombabah

Coombabah, Queensland

Coombabah is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Coombabah had a population of 9,303.The word 'Coombabah' is an English corruption of the Aboriginal word, and can have three alternate translations. The first, 'Koomboobah', means 'place of the cobra worms'...

, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It serves the suburbs of Hope Island

Hope Island, Queensland

Hope Island is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 Census, Hope Island had a population of 5,396. Hope Island is popular due to its close proximity to both the Gold Coast beaches and Brisbane city....

, Paradise Point

Paradise Point, Queensland

Paradise Point is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 Census, Paradise Point had a population of 19,139.The suburb lies on the Broadwater and has direct access to the Coomera River, and therefore the suburb is well serviced by boats ramps and marinas. Paradise Point is...

, Hollywell, Runaway Bay

Runaway Bay, Queensland

Runaway Bay is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 Census, Runaway Bay had a population of 8,449.The locality of Anglers Paradise is situated within Runaway Bay. In 1967, the Lae Enterprises company bought 182 hectares of land along the western shore of the Gold Coast...

 and Coombabah. The school, that was established in 1981, had 879 students and 61 prep students as of May 2007.

History

The school was built in 1981 to service the growing population in the area north of Biggera Waters. Classes began at the start of 1981 and were held at Biggera Waters Primary School until the present facilities were constructed. A few months later, Coombabah State relocated to the current school grounds. Coombabah State School was officially opened by Ivan Gibbs on 14 November 1981.

Truancy

Truancy

Truancy is any intentional unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling. The term typically describes absences caused by students of their own free will, and usually does not refer to legitimate "excused" absences, such as ones related to medical conditions...

 has been identified as a problem for Gold Coast schools with typically 150 students at Coombabah State being absent each day in August 2009.

Faculty

The current principal of Coombabah State School is John Hockings. Past principals include Dennis Howard 1981-1989, Robin Ramsbotham 1985-1995, and Dianne Rankin 1996-2004.

Approximately 12% of the general component of the school budget was allocated to professional development in 2005. From 2005 staff have had individual development plans to help address their in-service needs.

Features of the curriculum

• Instrumental music program and a number of performing groups including Band, String Orchestra, Beginner's Strings, and Junior and Senior Choirs. At the 2005 Gold Coast Eisteddfod each of the groups that the school entered were placed, winning four places and a highly commended.
• Japanese culture and language
  Japanese language
  is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
  
   studies in years 6-7.
• Advanced Learning Technology program including use of the Internet. The school was an early innovator in the use of classroom computers, including Logo
  Logo (programming language)
  Logo is a multi-paradigm computer programming language used in education. It is an adaptation and dialect of the Lisp language; some have called it Lisp without the parentheses. It was originally conceived and written as functional programming language, and drove a mechanical turtle as an output...
  
   and laptops.
• The school has two time capsules.
• Integrated studies, comprising society and environment, science, technology, and the arts are taught in all classes throughout the school and are structured around real life learning.

Demographics

The families of the students come from a wide socio-economic range. Almost 65% of parents are in trades, labouring work and home duties. The parents in professions account for approximately 9%.

Sports

Controversy was caused in October 2008 when the school was criticised by Queensland Sports Minister Judy Spence

Judy Spence

Judith Caroline "Judy" Spence is an Australian politician and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for the Australian Labor Party since the 1989 election. She represented Mount Gravatt until 2009, but after a redistribution she switched to Sunnybank, which covered much of the same territory...

for banning year 7 students from playing football, of all codes, during lunch-time, because it was regarded as "too rough". The year sevens of 2008 were labeled as the worst year sevens ever at the school by teacher Jill Warr.

External links