St Peter's Primary School

Port Waratah enjoys a long-standing relationship with St Peter’s Primary School in Stockton and have supported the school community with partnerships for a number of initiatives over recent years.

In 2021, our partnership provided funding for Stage 1 of an invigorating playground rejuvenation to enhance the facilities and increase the ability to play a variety of games, be more active and stimulate children’s imaginations. The project saw an uninspiring space of mostly bitumen, transformed into an engaging outdoor space which, apart from free play, provided better facilities for the teaching of PE classes in a more conducive and motivating environment.

In 2019, the school sought to employ speech and language students from the University of Newcastle, after it had been identified that a number of K-2 students had speech and language delays, including expressive and receptive delays. Ordinarily, parents would be required to seek private specialist treatment to correct such delays, which can be difficult and expensive to secure, however through our partnership we were able to assist with the provision of speech and language therapy. The therapy worked as a first step towards closing the gap for students with low literacy to ensure that students enjoyed their learning experience and progress in school towards reaching their full potential.

School Principal, Michael Punch, said “There is a direct correlation between children whose speech and language is developmentally appropriate and academic success, including literacy skills. These developments are crucial.  The school was pleased that, with the assistance of Port Waratah, we were able to provide speech and language intervention to those students identified, which subsequently helped lower the literacy gap.”