Whitfield State School

Whitfield State School is one of the larger schools in the Cairns area. The school is set on a large site with ovals, extensive gardens and tropical rainforest. Close to both tropical rainforest tablelands and the Great Barrier Reef and some of Australia’s most beautiful natural environments. Teachers use proven, high-yield teaching practices such as Explicit Instruction and Learning Consolidation to maximise student learning. Structured programs in mathematics, reading, writing and spelling are taught across the school to achieve high levels of literacy and numeracy.

Year established 1989
Number of students 850
Street address McManus St, Whitfield QLD 4870, Australia

Special programs

• Gifted Education program for talented students
• Sporting Excellence program

Extracurricular activities

• Active student leadership programs
• Biennial Musical Marvels Cultural Performance Night
• Choral music program
• Islander singing group
• Biennial arts festival
• Science on the Oval (SOTO) program
• Chess club
• Annual athletics carnival
• International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS)
• mathematics
• English
• science
• digital technologies
• spelling
• writing
• Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (CAT)
• Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT)
• Australian Geography Competition
• Calanna Rotary Junior Speaking Competition – Years 4–6
• Cairns Junior Eisteddfod literary section
• Cairns Junior Eisteddfod music/choir section
• Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) certificates – mathematics, English
• Cairns District Schools Science and Environmental Sustainability and Enrichment Program
• Annual Spelling Bee Competition – Years 3–6
• Annual Surfing Scientist partnership
• Annual performing arts collaboration with Year 10 students
• Annual Tbay Writers Festival – Year 6 students

 

School facilities

• Large undercover area and smaller undercover shelters
• Library/technology centre
• Two large sports ovals
• Students with Disabilities Centre
• Preparatory classrooms
• Instrumental music room
• Tuckshop serving healthy food open for morning tea and lunch every day
• Senior Learning Centre

Languages

• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Japanese
• English as an Additional Language/ Dialect (EAL/D)