Glen Waverley Secondary College

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Glen Waverley Secondary College
Gain Wisdom
Established	1960
School type	Public School
Principal/ Headmaster	Gerry Schiller
Location	Victoria, VIC, Australia
Campus	Glen Waverley
Enrolment	{{{enrolment}}}
School colours	Red, Blue, and White
Homepage	http://www.gwsc.vic.edu.au/

Glen Waverley Secondary College is a public government school located in Glen Waverley, a southeastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Amalgamation 3 Principals 4 Demographics 5 Houses 5.1 Administration 6 In the Media 6.1 Cultural Diversity website 6.2 Principal for a Day 6.3 School Funding Ad Campaign 6.4 Student VCE Results 7 Curriculum and Extra-curriculum 7.1 Music Program 8 References

[edit] Overview

The school currently has over 1,900 students from years 7 to 12, and according to a 2006 survey in The Age newspaper, had the most multicultural student population in Melbourne.^{[citation needed]}

Glen Waverley Secondary College offers a tertiary-oriented curriculum at senior year levels, and is developing a learning enquiry style curriculum at junior year levels.^{[citation needed]}

The College was one of the Government 'Navigator' schools, which saw it being given the role of exploring the application of ICT (Information Communication Technology) to contemporary classrooms, and then providing in-service programmes to educators around Australia. The majority of Glen Waverley's technology solutions are developed in-house.

Typically, around 30-40% of final year students achieve ENTER scores above 90, and usually around 75% obtain ENTER scores above 70 (the maximum being 99.95).^{[citation needed]}

The school is an active participant in international student exchange programs.

[edit] Amalgamation

The current College is a product of three separate secondary schools amalgamating in the early 1990s.

Syndal Secondary College and Lawrence Secondary College (the latter having a 'Technical School' specialisation) joined the existing Glen Waverley Secondary College and amalgamated school, sharing students, staff, and resources.

This came at a time when the Government was pursuing a policy of creating 'super' schools, rationalising small schools with dwindling enrolments out of existence. The belief was that larger schools would have a greater ability to offer a broad curriculum.

Lawrence closed first, followed by Syndal. The latter school continued as a junior campus (years 7 and 8) prior to closing.

The buildings on the sites of these former schools were demolished, and the land was used for housing developments.

The school buildings at Syndal were the "C-800" style, popular in Victoria through the late 1960s and early 1970s (a surviving example of this style can be found at Westernport Secondary College). The design consists of a rectangular compound formed from inward-facing classrooms, this compound enclosing a pair of hexagonal-shaped buildings, one a library, and the other a flexible-use cluster of classrooms. The latter 'hexagon' was designed to enable internal walls to be temporarily reconfigured, allowing for team-teaching of larger groups, or other collaborative activities. This functionality has now been reproduced in the current College's Middle School Building, where the reconfigurable classroom design supports Enquiry Learning pedagogies.

[edit] Principals

Tony Bell was principal of the school from the 1980s until mid-1999, and oversaw the implementation of new facilities beyond what most state schools were able to offer.^{[citation needed]} Under Tony Bell, the school was able to unveil its heralded "Science and Technology Centre", which followed on from years of curriculum research and reform.^{[citation needed]} This new facility allowed a far more comprehensive base for teaching technology, especially in the areas of electronics, materials (wood, metal and plastic), textiles as well as information technology. The building also provided new science labs. His successor in the role was Darrell Fraser (1999-2004). In 2004, Fraser was offered the position of Deputy Secretary in School Operations in the Department of Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Victoria.

Gerry Schiller is the current school Principal, having previously been the Head of the Middle School as well as the Assistant Principal.

[edit] Demographics

The diverse school population comprises over 40 nationalities, speaking more than 50 different languages. As is the case with all Victorians, many students at the school are from migrant backgrounds, with as much as half the entire population of Asian background. The school has been criticised by local residents as it continues to exclude local Australian Students instead opting to give their places to international students, who are willing to pay as much as $20,000, raising questions as to whether it is a public or private school.

Each year, GWSC students participate in a programme of cultural activities and exhibitions, as part of the Victorian State Government's 'Celebrate Our Cultural Diversity Week'. Within the College community, the programme is designed to recognise and celebrate the successful integration of GWSC's culturally diverse population.

[edit] Houses

The College has a four "House" system. The Houses have heretofore been used mainly for sporting events (note the sporting themes in their naming), but is now slated to form the basis of a reform of the Junior classes into Learning Communities.

Goolagong House is named for Evonne Goolagong Cawley, the famous Australian tennis player. Evonne Goolagong is a tennis great and the symbol of Goolagong House. An aboriginal, Evonne was born and raised in the town of Barellan. She started playing tennis after her father, an auto mechanic, found some old tennis balls in a used car that he had bought. From this, Evonne found her calling. She was first spotted at a tennis clinic, and from there she was groomed into one of this nation's greatest sporting heroes.

Bradman House is named for Donald Bradman, the cricket great. Bradman was born on the 27th of August 1908 and was the youngest of 5 children. Don refined his cricketing skills by throwing a golf ball against a small brick wall and hitting it on the rebound with a cricket stump. When Don's father first took him to a test match at the SCG Don told him "I shall never be satisfied until I play on this ground". Bradman's Test debut was in the 1928-29 series and in the third test of the series he scored his first Test century. Don Bradman took the cricketing world by storm. The more he played, the more cricket records he broke. In Test Cricket, he scored 6,996 runs at an average of 99.94 (a longstanding record).

Elliot House is named for Herb Elliot, the Australian Olympic athlete. This House's colour is Red, derived from the colour of the running tracks that Herb competed on. Australia's and perhaps the world's greatest middle-distance runner, Herb Elliot was born in Perth in 1938. Winning his first mile race when he was only 14, he set two world records in 1957 in the junior mile class and then won the Australian senior mile race. After two gold medals in the 1958 Commonwealth Games, Herb went on to set world records for the mile and 1500 metres, and won gold in a world record time of 3 minutes 35.6 seconds at the 1960 Olympics. At the end of the 1961, at the age of 23, Elliot retired after 9 successful years without a defeat. Trained by the authoritarian coach, Percy Cerutty, Elliot was never defeated in a 1500 metres race between 1957-1961.

Fraser House is named for Dawn Fraser, the famous Australian swimmer. This House's colour is Blue. Born on September 4th 1947, Dawn Fraser is world renowned for her outstanding achievements in swimming. By the age of 19, Dawn competed in her first Olympic games in 1956 and won two gold medals for Australia. In Rome (1960), Dawn became the first woman to retain the Olympic 100m freestyle title with a record time of 1:01.2. She then went on to compete successfully in various other events throughout her illustrated career. Dawn was named the supreme female performer in Australian sport history, when in 1999 she was selected by the twelve members into the Sport Hall of Fame.

House competitions do not occur as frequently as in other schools of Victoria. In terms of competitions, the school focuses mainly on inter-school competition pertaining to particular sports such as table tennis, badminton, tennis, soccer, cricket, netball, softball, etc. The system for these competitions is to first attend a training session and then onward from this several training sessions if need be, then the suitable team members will be picked to form a team to play against other schools on a certain day. Then results from this will then dictate the teams standings as a representation of the overall school.

[edit] Administration

The new administration block was among the first spaces to be delivered, and sits on O'Sullivan Road, providing a clear entrance to the College, and clarifying the layout of the school. Previously, the Administration area was located in the centre of the site, and some visitors experienced difficulty finding it, although a few still have trouble finding the site.

The Administration block provides accommodation for the Principal class teachers, as well as the General Office, Business manager, Daily Organiser, Facilities Manager, and a large Professional Learning suite. Network technical support is also located there.

[edit] In the Media

[edit] Cultural Diversity website

The official website for the state government's 'Celebrate Our Cultural Diversity Week' was developed by students from GWSC.

[edit] Principal for a Day

On the morning of Monday, October 27th 2003, Dr Ziggy Switkowski, then CEO of the Telstra Corporation, visited the College as part of the "Principal for a Day" programme. Due to his high profile, this visit was featured on current affairs programmes on commercial networks.^[1]

[edit] School Funding Ad Campaign

In late 2004, Glen Waverley Secondary College was involved in a political advertising campaign in which it was compared to Scotch College Melbourne (an elite private school) over the issue of government funding. GWSC rejected claims that it was involved in the advertising campaign however it should be noted that, when asked by the Age Newspaper, they did not condemn it, which leaves room for speculation.^{[citation needed]}

The aim of the campaign was to highlight the disparity in funding between rich private schools and modest state schools. According to nation-wide newspaper 'The Australian', Scotch College Melbourne responded legally in which an undisclosed remedy was awarded against the political party who made the advertisement.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Student VCE Results

In December 2006, four students from the College achieved the maximum possible score on the Victorian Certificate of Education. This is an unusual and noteworthy result, as, from the 48,000 state-wide candidates for the 2006 VCE, only 35 achieved this "perfect" score. Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School had five students who achieved the perfect score, but the media concentrated on the four Glen Waverley students, the angle being that it was unusual to have so many perfect scores in any school, let alone a public one. ^[2][3]

Overall results for Year 12 were above average for this school in 2006. Former Glen Waverley Secondary College student Tianhong Wu received an all-rounder award from Victorian Premier Steve Bracks at a ceremony at the Regent Theatre on 30 May 2007 for her performance in VCE. She achieved his award despite speaking little English when she arrived from China in 2002 ^[4]

[edit] Curriculum and Extra-curriculum

[edit] Music Program

The school runs a music program with a wide range of music students distributed across several woodwind, string and vocal ensembles.^{[citation needed]} These ensembles include:

• Guitar Ensemble (Middle School and Senior)
• Junior Band
• Middle School Band
• Symphonic Wind
• Beginner Strings
• Junior Strings
• Senior Strings
• Middle School Choir
• Senior Choir
• Stage Band (Middle School and Senior)

Every year the students go to Rutherford Park for "Music Camp". For three days they ritualistically practice in their ensembles for seven or eight hours, only stopping for meals, sleep, and short breaks. This is generally in preparation for the Melbourne School Bands Festival held in Robert Blackwood Hall in Monash University and the Gala Events held at the school, but also helps to further the skill levels of each ensemble and the relationships between each of the members.

In 2006 GWSC was one of 100 Australian schools to be invited to the 2007 Cheng Yung fat Youth Music Festival, where they will be joining thousands of music students from all over the world in Chengdu, China.

[edit] References