Parkes Public School is a co-educational primary school located in the centre of Parkes. It is situated on a split site. It caters for students with special needs, including the gifted and talented and children with disabilities. Parkes Public school seeks to develop in all students a sense of belonging, worthiness and competency. It strives for excellence in the education of responsible and respectful students in a safe learning community. Children are taught to be accountable for their own actions. Our school motto, Strive for Success reflects the attitude of our students and staff towards all aspects of our school including academic growth, sporting and performing arts achievements and personal goals. Our school has a strong inclusion policy for children with special needs. Our school has four multi-categorical classes. Twenty of our students receive some funding to support their disabilities and are enrolled in mainstream classes. Gifted and Talented students are identified through observation and formal testing. These students in Years 5 and 6 are clustered together and given the opportunity to work on individualised programs which require higher order thinking. Over eighty of our students are Aboriginal and twelve of our students are from non-English speaking backgrounds. We have a transient population. Only 80% of our Year 5 students were enrolled at our school in Year 3. Parkes Public School has a strong focus on literacy and numeracy and the performing arts. Specialised literacy and numeracy programs include 3L’s,Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar, Wink Writing, Reading To Learn, Rocket Reading, Reading Recovery, Speech and Language, Count Me In and Counting On. The school has a band and choir. All K-6 students have the opportunity to be involved in a biannual musical production. We have junior and senior debating teams and provide an abundance of public speaking opportunities. Interactive white boards are installed in all classrooms and the school has a connected classroom and computer laboratory. A..