Peregrine is a small community school which is rather like a big family. We strongly believe that developing strong relationships between students and teachers is the most powerful way of creating students who are enthusiastic and engaged learners. We support this goal by ensuring that Peregrine remains small, by teaching in mixed age classes and by allowing children to have the same teachers over several years. All of the teachers are mentors to all of the children. Our approach is successful in creating an environment in which students are enthusiastic to be at school and eager to learn. At Peregrine, teachers respect and plan for each child's individual emotional, social and academic needs. We have time to spend with each student on a daily basis and work with them as they grow from year to year. At Peregrine, groupings are designed to cater for different learning experiences as they happen throughout the day. Project days, shared meals and meetings are all activities enjoyed by the school together; this is one way to foster a family like feeling in the school. Smaller groupings occur for literacy and numeracy activities and are based on each student's stage of development rather than their age. We make sure that groups are small enough for each student to receive individual attention from the teacher. Broader developmental groups are in place for music, art and sporting activities. At Peregrine, an important part of our day is the preparation of shared lunch. Delicious healthy meals are prepared by the students and teachers using fresh fruit and vegetables each day. We create a strong sense of community through the activities of cooking and sharing our meals. During these activities we also create authentic opportunities for learning in numeracy, literacy and science while developing strong and constructive relationships with each other. At Peregrine we value cooperative learning in context and so important parts of the program are excursions and camps as well as project days on Fridays. Project days..