| Glen Waverley Secondary College | |
|---|---|
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"Gain Wisdom"
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| Location | |
| Glen Waverley, Victoria Australia |
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| Information | |
| Type | Public School |
| Established | 1960 |
| Principal | Gerry Schiller[1] |
| Grades | 7-12 |
| Enrolment | 1900[1] |
| Colour(s) | Red, Blue & White |
| Website | www.gwsc.vic.edu.au |
Glen Waverley Secondary College is a public government school located in Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia. It is one of the four largest secondary schools in Victoria.[1]
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The current College is composed of three separate secondary schools which were amalgamated in the early 1990s. Syndal High School 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. The buildings on the sites of these former schools were demolished, and the land was used for housing developments.
The official website for the state government's 'Celebrate Our Cultural Diversity Week' was developed by students from GWSC. At the launch of the website, the students were photographed by the media with various ministers and the Premier, Steve Bracks.
On the morning of Monday, October 27, 2003, Dr Ziggy Switkowski, nuclear energy advocate and then CEO of the Telstra Corporation, visited the College as part of the "Principal for a Day" programme. The programme was intended to give business leaders insights into the work being done in shaping the citizens of tomorrow. Due to his high profile, this visit was featured on current affairs programmes on commercial networks.[2]
In late 2004, Glen Waverley Secondary College was involved in a political advertising campaign in which it was compared to Scotch College Melbourne over the issue of government funding. 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.
In December 2006, four students from the College achieved the maximum possible score of 99.95 on the Victorian Certificate of Education, a score achieved by the top 0.05% of the state, a high result for a non-private school and non-selective school. The fact that all four students were from migrant backgrounds was also of interest to the media.[3][4][5]
The "2020 Program" is a Year 9 learning enquiry, run for the first time in 2008. The focus is "learning for a sustainable future". The program runs over a three-week period, and replaces core-subject class time. The four houses take turns to complete the program. There is heavy emphasis on the use of ICT, and some use of Web 2.0 concepts. Students are grouped into teams of three to five students, and select a research question to answer in depth. They communicate between themselves, other groups and teachers through their own group blog, and can publish resources they find useful to a central wiki. The program involves an excursion to CERES and an optional tree-planting trip.