OUR APPROACH

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Our biggest variation from standard practice is our emphasis placed on Physical Education and the way it is taught. In fact, practical skill in Physical Education is the first consideration when recruiting a staff member. It is assumed that if they can teach a significant sport capably and with control over the class, the boys will transfer their positive attitude into their academics. This is admittedly an unusual educational approach.

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When the school began in 1980 the Registered Schools Board inspectors accepted that since the school was a special school for bright underachievers some liberties could be taken with the usual academic prescriptions, They agreed that the schools rather unusual emphasis on Physical Education meant some other subjects such as Science, Music and Art could be regarded as peripheral though in practice they tend to appear and reappear with some frequency. To further add weight to the success of the method, Frank published a thesis in 1981 demonstrating a positive correlation between cognitive ability and physical activity.

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The school's current Principal, Ziad Zakharia’s conducted further research in between 2005-2007. His masters degree thesis found that, after a year of this program, the students made a positive personality change and achieved academic, physical well being and sporting success. He decided to test this by a pre-test and post-test of self-image administered by an independent psychologist. 

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Below are some of the proven strategies and outcomes the current physical education-based program started by Frank Dando and continued by Ziad Zakharia has on students.

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• All staff members are experts in a variety of sporting fields and lead by example, providing the boys with positive role models.

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• A large proportion of boys enrolled start overweight, with a small number starting obese. Insistence and education provided with respect to a healthy well balanced diet and eating habits combined with an intensive training regime results in quick weight loss that corresponds quickly to an improvement in self image.  

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• Despondent boys very quickly achieve a degree of success in a physical education activity which they had never achieved academically. This has a compounding effect on their self image and self confidence and quickly translates into their academic performance. 

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• A term of daily martial arts and boxing makes the boys proficient enough to engage in light contest activity, further increasing their self confidence. ​

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• A pattern of intensive physical education followed by academic work has a powerful calming effect on distractible boys.

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• At the completion of the school year, most students achieve a level of literacy and numeracy once thought unattainable in a mainstream setting. Generally most students who reintegrate back into a mainstream setting have jumped ahead of their peers both physically and academically where they were once disengaged and struggling.  

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• Boys will accept a standard of teacher authority in physical education which they would normally not accept in academic subjects. This is particularly true in areas of perceived danger such as skiing, horse riding, abseiling and surf life saving.

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• The school's physical program also involves intensive swimming, strength & conditioning and four rigorous weeklong camps, the last being the extremely demanding Surf Training Camp conducted with Woolamai Surf Life Saving Club. The boys take with them a continual feeling of success, building self confidence which carries through into all aspects of their life. 

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