Kardinia International College

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Kardinia International College

Motto	Wisdom leads to Respect and Friendship
Established	1995
Type	Independent co-educational secondary; primary
Principal	John Goodfellow
Founder	Yoshimaro Katsumata
Grades	Pre-school - Year 12
Location	Bell Post Hill, Victoria, Australia
Colours	Navy blue and maroon
Website	www.kardinia.vic.edu.au

Kardinia International College is an independent school located in Bell Post Hill, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is a single campus college, residing on the site of the former Morongo Girls' College.

1 College history
2 Structure
- 2.1 Senior School
3 Houses
4 Controversy
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] College history

Morongo, 1863.

Kardinia International College was founded by Yoshimaro Katsumata who purchased Morongo's buildings, grounds, facilities and resources in mid-1995. It first opened in 1996 with 31 secondary students and 42 kindergarten children.^[1] This would grow to around 1500 students by 2006. The International Baccalaureate has been implemented at the primary school years level and at the Diploma level.

The word Kardinia is a Tasmanian Aboriginal word which means sunrise or new beginning.^[1]

Gotemba Nishi High School, also owned by Katsumata, is a sister school to Kardinia International College.

[edit] Structure

The college is divided into four distinct sections:

The Early Learning Centre incorporates a three and four year old kindergarten, in addition to a pre-school.^[2]

The Lower Primary Centre caters for prep, as well as grades one and two.^[3]

The Upper Primary Centre contains grades three, four, five and six.^[3]

The Senior School, for years seven to twelve.

[edit] Senior School

The Senior School utilises a vertical curriculum for years seven to ten. This system is based upon the individual choices of a student. At the beginning of each semester, students are issued with a unique timetable of seven subjects, based upon their preferences. This allows for students to focus heavily on one particular area, or elect to pursue one or more languages. This system does not allow free rein, however, with a minimum number of subjects which must be undertaken in each learning area. An additional benefit of this is that each student's abilities can be catered for, as they are not restricted to just undertaking classes in their year level, but can move to higher or lower levels if it is felt to be beneficial.

For years 11 and 12, there are two options to undertake. The Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) was first implemented in 2000, and is the main high school certificate for year 11 and 12 students in Victoria. In 2005, Kardinia offered the alternative of the International Baccalaureate Diploma. 33 students completed the International Baccalaureate in 2006. The school also implemented the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program into the junior school. VET (Vocational Education and Training) courses are also available to willing students.

[edit] Houses

Kardinia International College has four houses to which students are allocated, each having a historical meaning.

House	Cowie^[4]	Gotemba^[5]	Morongo^[6]	Thomson^[7]
Colour	Green	Blue	Red	Yellow/Gold
Named after	The first squatter to settle on the college site.	The home city of the college founder.	The historic homestead originally built on the site in 1859	The first mayor of Geelong who brought the name Kardinia to the region.

[edit] Controversy

Several students were involved in the creation and distribution of a controversial DVD first seen in the media in October 2006. According to the college principal one student was expelled, along with a school investigation into two other students who "may have had some involvement". These students have since been expelled .^[8]
Despite the president of the Victorian Principals Association citing benefits, the college along with many other Victorian schools "banned iPods and similar devices".^[9]