Our Catholic Faith and Tradition
With Catholic identity as its foundation, Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, Tarro continues to embrace the charism of the Sisters of Mercy who founded the school in 1944. These women gave each of us a special gift and continue to inspire the teachings and practices carried out each day at the school. As a Catholic school, we honour our responsibility for contributing to the life of the Church and spreading the Good News of Jesus. Our commitment to the Church’s mission ensures we provide a holistic education based on the Gospel values of justice, truth, peace and service towards one another.
We strongly acknowledge that parents are the first and foremost educators of their children. It is their witness and commitment that lays the foundation for their child’s growth and it is our privilege to support them in this role.
Academic Excellence
At Our Lady of Lourdes, all students are encouraged and challenged to do better and be better, to give their best effort, so that they will surprise themselves at what they are truly capable of achieving. We encourage the children not never settle for what they see is their ‘best’. High expectations are core to our presentation of the curriculum and the learning opportunities provided for students. We focus on student learning, and improving student outcomes. By making learning visible, setting personalised goals, students understand what they are learning, where they are at in their learning what the next step is to improve and how to achieve this. We are a professional learning community that creates a culture of academic excellence and student growth. We provide a caring and nurturing learning environment and are committed to providing positive and enriching educational programmes which cater for the individual needs and interests of each child.
Culture of Inclusivity
Our Lady of Lourdes has a strong sense of community and inclusivity, where we acknowledge and appreciate our multicultural community. Our student population draws from diverse cultural backgrounds including Filipino, Samoan, Tongan, South African, South American, a variety of European countries and Indigenous Australians. We blend together to form a school community that is culturally aware and respectful of all traditions.
The dignity of each student is respected, the curriculum is adjusted to address individual needs and all staff are professionals who value integrity and justice. We encourage students to extend beyond perceived limits and we take time to nurture our students on their journey of personal growth.
Aboriginal Education
Our Lady of Lourdes is a unique school community that is strongly committed to Aboriginal education. Our school is proud of the many opportunities provided to all students to increase cultural knowledge of, and pride in, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
The heritage of our Indigenous students is deeply respected, and we ensure that it is a focus of our school celebrations, especially during NAIDOC Week, Reconciliation Week and Harmony Day. We also run a cultural programme called Culture Yarns that aims to increase student knowledge of, and pride in, their Aboriginal identity. Students in this programme have the opportunity to hear from local members of the Aboriginal community and learn about Aboriginal cultures, both traditional and contemporary.
Other Education Opportunities
Our Lady of Lourdes offers many different education opportunities to extend and develop children at our school. These include:
- Music classes, including junior and senior choir and folk group
- Access to the Aspire program, a Diocesan run program that includes opportunities for music, singing, drama and dance performance as well as the young scriptwriters program
- Gifted education, each child undertakes CogAT testing to identify children with potential. These potential results combined with actual performance and aptitude could lead to involvement in the Diocesan Virtual Academy
- Many different sporting opportunities including Athletics, Swimming, Touch Football, Futsal, Cross-country and more.
OOSH Child Care
An Out Of School Hours childcare service is provided by Maitland Baptist Church in the Northern Avenue Community Hall adjacent to our school. During school terms it operates from 6.00am to 8.30am in the morning and 3.00pm to 6.00pm in the afternoon. Students are brought across the road each morning by the OOSH staff and assemble on our site to be collected in the afternoon.