Tony Fuller - Head of Campus Weipa

Personal

I graduated from College as a Health and Physical Education teacher in 1981 and commenced my teaching career at Monto State High School.  After 2 years at Monto, I transferred to North Bundaberg State High School for 10 years to head up the HPE Department.  Having spent some time in Weipa on long service, my family agreed that it would be a special place to raise a family and enjoy the challenges of working in a remote aboriginal community/mining town. Consequently, I applied for the Head of Curriculum position at Weipa North State School and was successful.  While based at Weipa I have been promoted to Deputy Principal and during the last 4 years have fulfilled the role of Head of Weipa Campus.  During this time I have thoroughly enjoyed leading the transformation of  Weipa North SS to the new look Western Cape College, a very exciting time that has offered many professional challenges.

My wife Sue and 2 children Luke and Jarod thoroughly enjoy living in the Western Cape area and in the future will have many fond memories of their time here.

Role

As Head of Weipa Campus, I am responsible for what is taught and how it is taught in the Preschool through to the Year 12 classes.  My ultimate responsibility is to ensure appropriate pathways are available for our students to successfully complete Year 12 and guide them into suitable career paths.  To achieve this, a sound grounding in the Junior Years of education is essential, followed up by innovative and engaging Middle School strategies.  These need to be continually enhanced and monitored.  Weipa Campus can be proud of its capacity to deliver in this area and very satisfying results reward the hard work and amazing talents of my middle management team.

Current focus

A major focus at present is reviewing the Senior Schooling pathways.  The goal is to enable our current Year 9 students (2008 graduates), the best opportunities towards achieving the soon to be introduced, Queensland Certificate of Education.  It is essential to maintain the strong academic focus of the school, but also recognise the need for positive vocational pathways within the curriculum and acknowledge the extra curricular achievements of our students.  One concern I have is the number of teenage students still disengaged from any form of learning or earning within the Weipa district and the vast number of programs in place that are struggling to have an impact.  This is a very complex issue that requires a whole of Government approach.

The enhancement of the physical environment of the campus has been an on going project- all buildings are being progressively targeted for an external repaint; a roofing replacement program is in place; improved landscaping, increased number of shade areas and designated eating areas are all  improvements highly valued by the school community.

An enormous amount of consultation, planning and design on the Weipa Campus Facilities Master Plan has been undertaken over the past 2 years and it has been very rewarding to see the commencement of stage one announced by Minister Anna Bligh, a $8,400,000 project.  Tenders have closed and it is expected that construction will start by the end of May.  These are very exciting times for the Year 4 to 12 teachers with 10 extra classrooms, walkways, a covered area and toilet block being built.