The Essington School Darwin is located in Rapid Creek which is approximately ten kilometres from Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is an independent, non-denominational co-educational day school. The school originated in the early 1980s as a Montessori Kindergarten catering for children from three to five years of age. In 1990 the school expanded to cover all primary years through to and including Year Seven. In 2000 the school has expanded to offer a program from Kindergarten to Year 10. The Essington School Darwin is structured in four phases: • Pre-School - this program caters for children in Toddlers - two and a half to three years of age; and Pre-school - three to five years of age; • Early Learning Unit (Pre-Transition and Transition), • Junior School (Years 1 to 5) • Middle School (Years 6 to 10). The Essington School Darwin has a two-year multi-age class structure with some single year classes. Class sizes are small and usually with a student : teacher ratio of 22:1. The school’s vision takes a holistic approach to education that ensures an effective and challenging educational program, which is based on the individual needs of the child with the emphasis being placed on the recognition of differences between children. The school provides a positive, nurturing environment in which children are encouraged to pursue their potential. In line with its philosophy, The Essington School Darwin provides a fully inclusive program, catering for children with a diverse range of needs. The future plan of the school is to move to senior secondary. International education is becoming a major focus of the school as it moves further into the secondary school arena. The school also has a sister school relationship with a school in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Tokyo, Japan with other links with independent schools in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in progress. Through a student exchange scheme reciprocal student exchanges take place at Middle School Level. There are also plans for links with other international schools particularly in Indonesia and Thailand. In 2001 our school signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tamagawa University and School in Tokyo, Japan. We are in the process of developing links with this University and school to allow our students to participate in unique future program. The Tamagawa University entered two cars in the Northern Territory, Darwin to Adelaide Solar Car Challenge this year. The school has a strong emphasis on learning technologies involving a laptop computer program in the Middle School for Years 6 - 10 students. All Early Learning Unit and Junior School students also attend weekly computer classes in the school’s computer laboratory. A broad education is provided with classes in Indonesian, Physical Education, Art, Computer Studies, Drama and Theatre Studies, Music, Choral (School Choir), and Sport complementing the Core Curriculum of English, Maths, Science and SOSE. The school also has close links with the Northern Territory University and shares their facilities, particularly science and technology. Middle School students use the University’s facilities for science, wood technology, fabric technology and cooking/hospitality.