Welcome to Hughes Primary School!

A warm welcome to Hughes Primary School (HPS). HPS is a dynamic and high energy learning environment with over 500 students. With mainstream classes from Preschool to Year 6 and the Southside Primary Introductory English Centre (SPIEC), we celebrate diversity, inclusion and wellbeing. Hughes Primary School is a Candidate School for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme. The school is pursuing authorisation as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy - a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Hughes Primary School believes is important for our students. At Hughes, our mission is to support every child to flourish. Through evidence based and future focused education, we foster inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people. We demonstrate intercultural understanding and respect and act to create a better and more peaceful world.

The teaching teams at Hughes have very high levels of pedagogical knowledge and skill, including expert knowledge of teaching strategies, to improve student learning and wellbeing. The curriculum is rigorous and there are high expectations regarding meeting the needs of individual learners. Ongoing professional learning of all Hughes staff is an important priority as is the development of a whole school reflective culture focused on improving classroom teaching.

A celebrated feature of our school community is the dedicated and enthusiastic support of our parent community. Families are welcomed to be involved in our school at whatever level they can to ensure all children have a rich school curriculum. In 2020, we were finalists in the ACT Public Education Awards for our partnership with St. Andrews’ Retirement Village (now known as Warrigal Hughes Residential Care Home). The intergenerational connections that Hughes Primary School staff have fostered between our students and St. Andrews’ residents deserves to be celebrated! The benefits of engaging young people with older people are well researched. Our commitment is informed by extensive studies that demonstrate the importance of social connection and community participation on health and personal wellbeing - for older adults and children. We know that intergenerational programs improve psychological wellbeing and attitudes towards different generations. They also increase resilience. Our children benefit so much from the wisdom and perspective our older friends share.

Our school has two main values that underpin our work, our thinking and actions. We embrace the opportunity to actively promote our key values and beliefs. Our values are:

• Be Kind
• Try Your Best

We invite current and prospective families to contact us if you would like to learn more about our programs or enrolment process.

Nina McCabe

Principal