Girraween Primary School is located 40km southeast of Darwin in a rural area. At Girraween the whole child is valued so that emotional, social and academic needs are met. The school caters for students from Preschool to Year Six with an enrolment of 390 in 2011. Girraween's logo takes the form of an acacia tree, which is common to our area and has a pathway leading to it. It says that along our pathway there will be many choices to make or branches to take in order to achieve. Our motto 'Rising to the Challenge', supports our logo by recognising that there will be many different challenges to face along the way and that no matter the challenge we will grow; and the solid trunk of our learning will support us. The school has a set of clearly defined core values called the 'Seeds of Success'. They are respect, responsibility, personal best, care and fairness. Our teachers run evidence based, motivating literacy and numeracy programs. Literacy and numeracy progress is monitored closely and intervention programs are implemented where required. We have a reading coaching program, phonemic awareness skill development and maths support groups. Programs are based on inquiry based learning and students engage in many exciting, hands on learning opportunities to explore Science, SOSE and Health units of work. Sustainability is a key focus at Girraween with classes across the school being engaged in programs and small initiatives to make a difference. We work with the theme, ‘It matters what you do.’ Under this banner we have a worm farm, use towels instead of paper towel, automatic lights, timers on our air conditioners, fridge monitors, toad busters, paper recycling, compost bins and animal food collections. The school has a community farm and students study horticulture and agriculture as part of the Science program. In 2011, students are enjoying raising two calves and our chooks. We have successfully raised several chickens and also sold many eggs to help sustain our farm. Our vegetable gardens are set out with..