Head of Campus (Paul Haliday)

The St Pauls Campus of Tagai State College is situated on the eastern side of Moa Island just north of Thursday Island. The school itself sits beside a long sandy beach which has sheltering reef stretching the length of the beach. Natural fish traps and the ability to walk on and out to the reef at low tide makes this location picturesque and an exciting place to explore. The village is bordered by rolling green hills with Moa peak seen in the distance.

The classes at St Pauls Campus have staff which are very experienced and positive, dedicated to improving the outcomes of every child. The multi-age classes have allowed teachers to foster a caring “getting along” strategy with the older pupils modelling the behavioural strategies of confidence, persistence and emotional resilience. The curriculum has been designed to be relevant, and yet allow for moderation, so accurate assessment and reporting can take place.

Tagai State College has identified that our pupils are in remote areas and need some “Bound for Success” strategies to assist them in being more successful at school. Some of these strategies include:- developing a consistent regional curriculum,
providing transition support when our pupils live and study away from home, building workforce skills for our indigenous young people with the provision of a remote area teacher education programme. (ie.R.A.T.E.P.)

Forming a state college (i.e. Tagai) which will strengthen curriculum and student support services
In our school we have already planned to send our teachers and teacher aides to professional development courses.
We have already sent our school leaders in Year 7 to leadership training at Badu as well as selected and planned to send some Year 6 students to leadership training. RATEP has four students studying at our centre. The student range from Year 1 Diploma of Education to Year 3 Bachelor of Education courses with each of them practising with teachers at our school.

Our information and computer technology capability has been strengthened with support from the District Information Systems Centre (DISC) on Thursday Island. At St Paul’s we are structuring a computer classroom for Year 2,3,4 and a computer lab for Year 5,6,7 with 12 computers fully networked and with internet email capability. Our internet café for the community is being used daily.

The school is led by Head of Campus, Mr. Paul Halliday. He brings with him over 25years of teaching experience and is keen to improve the computer and reading skills of every child. A feature of the St Pauls Community is the strong support and enthusiasm that is evident in teaching and performing dance both at school and within the community. It is this community support in all facets of education that will also lead to better outcomes for our pupils.