Goodna state school provides support to a student body that comprises a very diverse range of needs. In addition to an inclusive curriculum with a number of embedded specialised programs, special interest groups and extended academic instruction classes are facilitated in order to provide targeted learning opportunities and experiences for students.
Extra-Curricular programs run in these learning areas:
The Arts:
- Cultural dance groups – Poi Group; African Dance; Pacifika Group; Didge Group; Clap stick Girls; Bhangara Bounces
- Dance Troupe
- Music groups – Drumming, Ukulele for students and teachers
- Choir – for students and teachers
Sport:
- Swim club
- Tennis group and Hot Shots
- Athletics training
- Running Club
STEM –
- ICAS competition – Science, Mathematics, Writing, English and Spelling.
High achieving school in the prestigious international University of NSW ICAS competition founded in 1981. GSS is a four-time ICAS University Medal winning school including achieving impressive results:
- The equal number one result for ICAS Science for Year 4 in the whole Australia.
- The equal number one result for ICAS Spelling for Year 5 in the whole of Australia.
- The equal number one result for ICAS Science for Year 5 in Queensland.
- The number one result for ICAS Writing for Year 4 in Queensland (and the number 2 result for ICAS Writing for Year 4 in the whole of Australia).
- The number two result for ICAS Writing for Year 5 in Queensland.
In addition, GSS since 2015 has achieved more than 20 ICAS National High Distinctions (Top 1 % in Australia results) in a wide range of prestigious ICAS competitions and adds to this impressive tally every year through a steadfast dedication to excellence. GSS exemplifies elite ICAS excellence in state education outperforming all local private and state schools and continues to be the highest achieving school for ICAS in the Ipswich region.
- Science club - A structured after-school workshops which allow students to investigate and extend upon current scientific curriculum and prepare for associated state and national science competitions.
- Coding club – A weekly opportunity open to all students, to spend a lunch break learning computational thinking and programming skills that are necessary for the development of websites, games and apps.
- Makerspace – A weekly after-school workshop where students are given an opportunity to investigate and extend on their current knowledge of the technologies curriculum and use technologies in innovative ways.
- Engineering Club – A weekly club where students are encouraged to experiment with various materials to solve physical problems. Previously, students have met with a civil engineer and then used the techniques learned in that workshop to successfully construct bridges and towers.
- Maths Inquiry Club – The Inquiry Club enables students to problem solve 'real world' scenario's using mathematical skills. They will often need to develop something usable as part of the solution (e.g. a multiplication bingo game where only ONE card will always be the winner).
Student Council:
The Goodna State School Student Council is made up of the Year 6 School Leaders and the Year 5 and 6 Heroes Ambassadors. Heroes Ambassadors will have a mandatory role of assisting in the playground for one break per fortnight and acting as a representative for a class in the school. In addition, the student council members (Heroes Ambassadors and School Leaders) will choose to engage with other school based projects related to STEM, sport and traditional student council initiatives, such as managing worm bins, can recycling, sports shed borrowing and other specific school wide projects.
Competitions and challenges:
- ICAS competition – Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Science
- Premier's Reading Challenge – All GSS students participate in the annual statewide initiative that aims to improve literacy and encourage children to read for pleasure and learning.
- Regional STEM Convention – Year 5 and 6 students are invited to compete in three categories Science Investigations, Design Technology and Information Technology. The competition includes an experience day at the University of Queensland, a term long project and a final presentation evening and competition. In 2017 GSS had a winning team in the Design Technology Communication category. In 2018 there were winners in both the Design Technology Mathematics and Information Technology Innovation category.
- Bebras Challenge – Year 3-6 students are invited to participate in a biannual computational thinking challenge supported by the Australian Government and facilitated by CSIRO and Digital Careers.