McDowall State School

McDowall State School
Location
McDowall, Queensland, Australia
Coordinates	27°23′19″S 152°59′20″E / 27.38861°S 152.98889°E / -27.38861; 152.98889Coordinates: 27°23′19″S 152°59′20″E / 27.38861°S 152.98889°E / -27.38861; 152.98889
Information
Type	State Primary School. Co-educational
Motto	Courtesy in conduct, Honesty in judgment,and Knowledge on which to base informed decisions
Established	1975
Principal	Bruce Fogarty
Enrolment	Approximately 850 (P-7)
Colour(s)	Red, green and white
Website	http://mcdowallss.eq.edu.au

McDowall State School is a state primary school located on the north side of Brisbane, Queensland in the suburb of McDowall. Established in 1975, the McDowall State School caters for students from prep to grade 7 with approximately 850 students in the whole school. McDowall State School is administered by Education Queensland.

School Campus

The McDowall State School is located on Rode Road in McDowall. In November 2011, the school finished major building construction, with the school hall being extended, now including 2 change rooms, 2 storage rooms, kitchenette and male and female toilets. Also, 3 ageing modular classrooms were replaced with a 2 storey building for grade 1 and grade 2 education classrooms. The new building's features include 8 classrooms, 4 toilets, 2 verandas and an under-croft for general student use. The school also has an air-conditioned library with a computer lab and library office. Another notable building in the McDowall State School is L Block, also known as the Activity Centre. The construction for the Activity Centre finished in mid-2010. This building is used for physical education and is also a back-up for the school hall. The school also has K Block, also known as the community access centre. This building is mainly used for outside school hours care, but is also used for classroom, and lunch time use. This building features a kitchen, play-room, an office and a media centre for classroom web conferences and for watching DVD's.

School Uniform

The main McDowall State School colours are red and green and these are reflected in the school uniform. The formal school uniform is a Tartan button-up shirt, although, this can also be bought as a dress. The school also has a sports shirt which is also commonly worn. The sports uniform is a red polo shirt and must be tucked in unless specifically specified. The third general school uniform that the school has is a house shirt. The four houses of the school are named after Australian native plants: Banksia, Acacia, Grevillia and Melaleuca. There are four house shirts and these correspond with the student's house. The house shirt has the name of the house and the plant colours; green, yellow, red, blue. All of these shirts must be worn with bottle green shirts, the polo shirt and the house shirt must be worn with white socks and the Tartan must be worn with bottle green socks. Shoes must be black unless stated by the Principal or his delegate. If bought during the year, there is a special 'year 7 shirt' that can be worn on Tuesday and Thursday for year 7 students, this shirt must comply with the rules that apply to the polo shirt and, it must be tucked in as well. This shirt is a combination of red, green and white and has every grade 7 student's name on the back.

School Leadership

McDowall State School offers student leadership for grade 7 students, but small leadership positions can be held by grades from grade 3 and up. For grade 7 students, leadership positions can include School Captain, School Vice Captain, Cultural Captain, Sports Captain, House Captain and Student Councillor.^[1]

School Captain, Vice Captain, Cultural Captain and Sports Captain.

Students wanting to become school captain have to be nominated by the grade 6 teachers, specialist teachers and the Deputy Principal and then present a speech in font of grades 4 - 6. These students then vote for 1 boy and 1 girl. The boy and girl with the most amount of votes become school captain and the boy and the girl with the second most amount of votes are Vice Captains. These speeches are performed in early December and the winners are announced later that day. Students wanting to be Cultural and Sports Captains perform a speech in front of all the grade 7 students early in February when they are in grade 7. The grade seven students then vote and the winners are announced later that morning.^[2]

House Captain

Students wanting to be house captain go through the same procedure as the Sport and Cultural Captains. The houses at McDowall State School are:

^[3]

Student Councillors

McDowall State School has a student council. The 2 School Captains lead the student council committee. There are 2 student councillors from each class from grades 4 - 7. Students that are interested in becoming a student councillor are voted by the class that they are a part of. The Student Council administer and organize raffles and fund-raisers and they come up with new ideas to improve the school.^[4]

Junior and Senior Badges

Students wanting to have any leadership position (This does not completely apply for Student Councillor) must have earned their Junior and Senior Badges, unless the student comes to the school during the grade levels where Junior Badges don't apply, where they must get there senior badge. The Junior Badge must be acquired by the end of grade 4 and the Senior Badge must be acquired by the end of grade 6 term 3 or the end of grade 6 (For House Captain). Students interesting in getting their Junior and Senior Badges are given a booklet and must have the booklet signed of by teachers around the school. To have a section of the booklet signed off you must display the characteristic in the booklet (These characteristics are usually behaviour related). Students wanting to become a student councillor in grade 7, must have their senior badge by the end of grade 6 (This does not apply to any other year level).^[5]

Extra Curricula/Co-curriculum activities

McDowall State School offers a wide range of extra curricula and co-curriculum activities.

Physical Education

McDowall State School has P.E lessons for all students. These lessons are usually learning skills for sports and lessons for 1 sport usually lasts 4 or 5 weeks. For Grade 4 to 7 the 'Beep' Test applies. The beep test in done 2 times a year.

Inter School Sport

McDowall State School provides inter school sport where students selected in sports teams og out to local sporting grounds and compete against other school in a wide range of sports. Students must first trial for these sports and only a limited number students will make the teams for sports. Inter school sport is held in 2 different terms. The sports that are offered for the first term are:

The second term sports are:

Students not doing inter school sport will be supervised and will do sport with teachers at school.

Music

McDowall State School has music lessons for students in grade 1 through to grade 7.

Performing Arts

Students can join school music programmes. Students can join the school choir, school strings, school, band and other musical groups. These music groups sometimes go and perform at various places. Each year the McDowall State School Honours Choir perform at Education Queensland's Creative Generation. There are nights during the school year where the school music groups perform in the School Hall for parents and friends to come and watch. These are Gala Nights and Celebration Concerts.

L.O.T.E (Languages other than English)

McDowall State School students in grades 4 - 7 learn Japanese as another language.

See also

• List of schools in Queensland

References