Radical new primary school coming to the westside

An innovative new independent primary school, where children learn in multi-age classes, is coming to the city’s inner-west.

Compass Independent School is forecast to open in the inner-west in 2022.

Westside parents looking for a fresh approach to teaching their children can add a new school to their list in 2022.

Compass Independent School is scheduled to open initially with a single Prep to Year 4 class, founder Alicia Gilbert said.

It would then grow to several composite classes of about 20 to a maximum of 24 children, with the exact composition dependent on the school site.

Ms Gilbert, who will be the teaching principal, is an experienced primary school teacher who taught at St Peters Lutheran College in Indooroopilly and for a decade in Shanghai and the NIST International School in Bangkok.

“I’ve got two degrees in education and our executive board is a team of five education specialists with teaching and university expertise,’’ she said.

“I’ve brought together a team I’m really proud of.’’

The project is at the accreditation stage and a site is yet to be secured, but initially they will lease or sublease in the inner-west.

But Ms Gilbert said the longer term goal was to acquire a site large enough to take multiple classes of Preps to Year 6s.

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“We want it to be intentionally multi-age and well crafted from a curriculum perspective,’’ she said.

“We believe children learn from their peers and you get this beautiful mentoring by older children.

“Composite classes also allow children to stay with their teachers for longer, so a deeper relationship can develop.

“You often find a teacher does a wonderful job but when a child moves up a grade all that knowledge of the child is lost and has to be re-built.’’

The curriculum would emphasis children learning at their own level, whether that was with older or younger children, with a focus on inquiry, play, creativity and collaboration.

A fee structure has not been finalised but Ms Gilbert said they had researched fees in the area and wanted theirs to be affordable.

The first of a series of information nights will be held at Toowong Library at 7.15pm on Tuesday, November 24.

Numbers are limited due to the size of the venue but spaces were still available at time of writing. RSVP by emailing: hi—[e-mail] (hi[underscore][e-mail])

Expressions of interest are being taken for enrolments in January 2022.

For more details on the school’s board, its philosophy and curriculum, and to lodge an expression of interest, visit:

https://www.compassindependentschool.com/

Originally published as Radical new primary school coming to the westside