Burwood Public School is located in Sydney's inner west and has an enrolment of approximately 570 students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, including international students. Approximately 97% of our students come from a language background other than English. Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Hindi and English are the languages most commonly spoken by our students. The school is dynamic and innovative, with a strong focus on providing quality education for all students including gifted and talented students.
Learning Driven by Curiosity and Challenge
At Burwood Public School, the aim is to provide students with learning driven by curiosity and challenge. Our students develop skills, knowledge and perspectives with an emphasis on collaboration, self-direction and a pedagogy that inspires lifelong learning.
Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a program for all primary and secondary students providing the opportunity to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking whilst developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and teamwork. Challenges are set in the following disciplines: The Arts, Language Literature, Social Sciences and STEM.
Our Chess Club include detailed instruction on strategies, tactics, puzzle solving and game analysis. Chess has been proven to be an educational tool to help students with logical thinking, comprehensive problem solving, and self-learning skills that in turn lead to improvement in academic results at school.
Academic Achievement and Competition Success
We are well known for the high academic achievements of our students and very proud of their results every year. We are also proud of student success in a multitude of competitions such as Maths Olympiads - Division J in the Australasian Problem-Solving Mathematical Olympiads 2021. This competition is held annually and comprises of five contests over the course of the year.
Debating and Public Speaking
Burwood Public School has a proud history of debating. Burwood Public School takes part in competition debates with other public schools. Debating is an important activity and beneficial art to be involved in as it builds confidence, school spirit, teamwork skills and is lots of fun.
The Multicultural Perspectives Public Speaking Competition has been encouraging primary school students to explore ideas of multiculturalism in Australia, as well as giving them a place to practice their public speaking skills and improve their confidence. The competition is open to all NSW government primary schools and has two different age divisions – one for Years 3 and 4 students and one for Years 5 and 6 students.
Strong Creative and Performing Arts programme
The school values creativity and our Creative and Performing Arts program is exceptional with a multitude of opportunities provided for students to participate in Music, Drama and Visual Arts. We have a variety of musical groups including bands, orchestras and choirs. These performing groups also take part in various events and performances during the year including band camp, festivals and concerts.
The Junior dance and Senior dance program provides students with internal and external performance opportunities, raising the profile of dance within the school and wider community. In recent years, these performances have included:
School based performances
- Dance Showcase
- Assemblies
Wider community performances
- Sydney Dance Festival
- Schools Spectacular
- Burwood Festival
Commitment to Sport
We have a rich history of sport at Burwood Public School and the students compete in four different houses: Eucalyptus, Banksia, Waratah and Jacaranda. Sport is an essential element of the life of every BPS student and their level of co-operation and enthusiasm is evident through their active participation in the three annual school carnivals – Swimming, Cross Country and Athletics.
Years 3 to 6 students have the opportunity to compete in a team on Fridays in the Western Suburbs Primary School Sports Association competition. This competition has numerous sporting options which extend throughout the winter and summer school terms. Through Sport, all students learn about the benefits of competition including perseverance, resilience, integrity and fair play. Many of our students compete at Zone, Regional and State levels as part of the NSW Primary School Sports Association in swimming, athletics and cross country.
Developing Future Leaders
Burwood Public School also has a strong focus on student leadership, promoting positive values and developing a sense of local and global citizenship in all year groups. The Student Representative Council, Sports Captains and the Prefect body work hard to maintain a passionate, supportive school spirit with both groups running numerous activities throughout the year including sporting and wellbeing events.
Spelling Bee
The Premier’s Spelling Bee is an annual competition that encourages primary school students in Years 3 to 6 to develop their spelling skills in a fun and educational way. Students are selected at school level to take part in regional finals. Regional winners then compete in the state final.
The Prime Minister's Spelling Bee is an annual competition that allows students to complete 30 spelling words in a fun format where they have to aim for accuracy, to beat the clock and finish ahead of their fellow students right across Australia.