School Excursion to Crestmead State School

It was a blustery day at this morning’s school excursion to Crestmead State School.

With Cyclone Oma tracking off the Queensland coast the wind played havoc with the marquees, and as Steve put it “our stage is about to become a convertible!”

Crestmead is Queensland’s 2^nd largest primary school, at around 1300 students strong and still growing. Michael Ward is in his 4^th year as principal, and is especially proud of the Spanish language program, as well as the Year 2 violin immersion program.

“That’s a very unique program and is based on research that shows music helps children with their concentration, language development and social skills.”

Michael has worked all over Queensland and reckons that the kids at Crestmead are the friendliest he’s ever taught.

“I actually have people banging on the door to come and work here, so I’m very proud of that.”

Tamara Browne is the chaplain at Crestmead and says that there are some challenges with working in such a large school. “Being such a big school it can be hard to connect with all the kids, especially if they don’t do programs with me on a regular basis.”

Chappy Tamara has developed the Pink & Green program, which aims to help kids with their self esteem and to communicate and co-operate better.

“We discuss that we’re all different, and it’s OK to be different, it’s OK to be you.”

Listen to Ken, Nicky and Steve talking with Chappy Tamara in the podcast player above.