Emmanuel College (Queensland)

Emmanuel College is an independent, co-educational, multi-denominational Christian school in the suburb of Carrara on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The College caters to students from Preparatory through to Year 12 and there is also an affiliated on-campus kindergarten, Little e's.^[2] Emmanuel College is privately owned and operated and is registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as a not-for-profit corporation.^[3]

History and Campus Development

Emmanuel College was officially opened on 30 January 1984.^[4] Initially, the College catered only for high school students in Years 8 and 9, with higher years added in subsequent years. In January 1989 a primary school opened with more than 150 students. In the early years, staff and students were housed in mobile structures, but a construction program in the following decade replaced all the temporary structures with permanent ones.^[5]

Major projects included the completion of the administration building,^[6] the library, information technology centres and an aquatic centre featuring a 25-metre swimming pool. Later structures included a Performing Arts centre, a sports building featuring a gymnasium,^[7] a multi-purpose basketball and tennis court complex, an Early Years (Prep – Year 3) building with play area,^[8] and an extension and renovation of the hospitality building.^[9] In 2007 a new science block was built comprising laboratories, offices and general classrooms.^[10] The previous science block was transformed into business classrooms as well as a Film and TV centre featuring the latest equipment and IT requirements. All the school's rooms are air-conditioned and most of the classrooms have interactive whiteboards.^[11] Some classrooms have already had the interactive whiteboards upgraded to commboxes.^[12]

In recent years, the College library has been extended, a Year 7 centre with a specialist music room has been built and the central courtyard of the College, Chapel Court, was developed.^[13] In 2012, The Emmanuel Theatre was opened. This modern, tiered, 450-seat facility has an operable orchestra lift, a full fly tower and tuition rooms.^[14][15] The Junior School play areas developed in 2013 include a tunnel, a maze, elevated walkways, a citrus grove and other creative play spaces that are adjacent to 'The Shed', a covered outdoor learning area.^[16] A heated indoor learn-to-swim pool was opened in 2014 and a state-of-the-art Junior School Design and Technology, Art and Administration building with modern new ablution facilities for Junior School students was opened on 7 February 2015. Emmanuel College now serves almost 1500 students and they compete internally in various inter-house activities as members of one of the four houses, namely, Luther, Taylor, Wesley and Wycliffe.

The Emmanuel College Chapel

The Emmanuel College Chapel was built in 1939-1940 and it was the last building approved in Surfers Paradise before the outbreak of World War II. It was the Clifford Street Uniting Church until the building was moved to the Emmanuel College campus and dedicated as the Emmanuel College Chapel on 7 July 1991.^[17] The Chapel features a number of beautiful stained glass windows.

The Journey Program

The Emmanuel Journey Program provides specific and intentional opportunities for students to learn and practice values and virtues that form part of the College ethos. The program exposes students to the cumulative effect of years of practice of the virtues, namely, Faith, Hope, Compassion, Justice, Self-Control, Courage, Integrity and Wisdom.^[18] The Program is aligned to the College's Student Leadership Development Program for all students.

Academic achievement

Emmanuel College is renowned for high level academic achievement. In 2013, Emmanuel College achieved an incredible feat by being one of only three Queensland schools, with more than fifty Year 12 OP-eligible students, to have had all of those pupils achieve an OP1 to 15. This was the first time ever that this has occurred since OP (Overall Position) results were released in 2006.^[19] The College is very proud of the results achieved by students each year in the National Assessment Program (NAPLAN). In 2014, Emmanuel College students' results were 9.67% (9.6% in 2013) above the Queensland mean and 8.07% (7.96% in 2013) above the Australian mean.^[20]

Extracurricular activities

Academic extracurricular activities include the gifted and talented programs, participation in Mathematics, English, Science, Writing, Computing and Spelling competitions, Olympiads, 'Day of Excellence', Writers Cup, one-on-one tuition and academic support programs. Drama, Dance and Music students enjoy excursions, incursions, festivals, competitions, clubs, extension activities, eisteddfods, examinations, concerts, workshops and other performance opportunities. Visual Art students visit exhibitions, enjoy artist-in-residence opportunities and they exhibit their own excellent works. Emmanuel College is a member of the APS group of schools. APS Sporting competition includes swimming, athletics, cross-country, rugby union, netball, volleyball, soccer, hockey, softball, cricket, AFL (Australian Rules Football) and touch football. In 2013, Emmanuel College's Open Girls Athletics team were the Australian Schools Champions, the Open Girls Volleyball team were the Australian Division 2 champions, eight students were Gold Badge Australian representatives or champions and sixteen students were Queensland representatives or medal recipients. Two Emmanuel alumni represented Australia at the 2012 London Olympics i.e. Cameron McEvoy in swimming and Jenny-Lyn Anderson^[21] in synchronized swimming. In 2014, Cameron won two Gold and three Silver medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow^[22] and he won the Gold medal in the Men's 100m Freestyle final at the Pan Pacific Championships ahead of the Olympic Champion, Nathan Adrian, as well as James Magnussen (3rd) and Michael Phelps (4th).^[23]

In December 2014, Emmanuel College's production of the musical, Miss Saigon, won the Golden Palm Award ahead of 36 drama companies from Ballina to Beenleigh. Cast member James Hunt won the award for best actor in a supporting role in a school/youth musical while Sally Lintott won the best technical achievement or effect award.^[24]

Queensland and international connections

The service and connections programs of Emmanuel College see students visiting Effective Aid International^[25] programs in Thailand annually and the College actively supports Mission Educate^[26] in Mozambique. The service program also offers student community service trips to a number of southern Queensland towns including St George, Chinchilla, Thallon, Bollon, Dirranbandi, Nindigully and Goondiwindi.

References

External links

• Official Website

Coordinates: 28°00′50″S 153°22′08″E / 28.014°S 153.369°E / -28.014; 153.369