Tanya Dunley values the school’s strong Christian focus.

I started mid-year, last year, and what I noticed straight away were the beautiful children and families. It’s a lovely tight-knit community. Being a small school you know everyone; you’re seeing them in the corridor, on the playground, you know their brothers and sisters and you’re seeing their parents.

We have good-sized classes and because we have multi-aged classes the children experience a range of personalities and develop friendships across grades. It builds resilience and gives them new experiences.

Our school does an amazing job with specialist teachers. The five-sixers have a big role in the production every second year which they really look forward to. I walked past the IT class and the grade five six were doing green screens and they were so engaged.

The whole school goes to the church and participates in mass which means the students become a lot more connected to the parish and they develop a really close relationship with the priest and the community. We have (a program called) Heart Space where the year fives split up and go to different grades and have a focus - it could be based on prayer or a larger focus on something that’s happening in the world –  and they pray with the younger kids. The fives are thrilled with the responsibility of their special job.