Pinjarra Senior High School is an independent high school in Pinjarra, a regional centre south of

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. The

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

covers the Pinjarra and surrounding areas such as

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, Dwellingup, Waroona, North Yunderup and South Yunderup. Established in 1921, the school enrolled 729 students in 2018, from Year 7 to

Year 12 Year 12 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes the twelfth year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-compulsory educa ...

, of whom eight percent identified as

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and nine percent of whom had a language background other than English. The WA Department of Education has educational oversight of the school. The school principal is Jan Stone.

History

John Fairbairn founded Pinjarra's first school in 1848, before obtaining its present site in 1921 when a three-room school building and manual training centre was completed. The school operated as a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

until 1951, then as a

junior high school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

until 1960, a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

until 1965 and as a senior high school since 1965. Elizabeth Aitken served as principal until 2011 and was replaced with Alan Hunt who held the role between 2011 and 2015. Rob Lawson served as principal from 2015 until 2018; when he was succeeded by Jan Stone.

Campus

The school has made a couple of notable additions to the campus within the past decade. In 2011, an AU$1.9 million

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was built under the Building Education Revolution scheme with Western Australia's Chief Scientist Lyn Beazley visiting the facility in 2009 during construction. In 2013, a Technology and Enterprise Building and Trade Training Centre was completed, at a cost of around AU$7m, which caters to the development of skills and experience in

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, metalwork and automotive trades. In July 2020, a AU$10.4 million Performing Arts Centre and Sports Hall was announced by Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan during a visit to the school. Work on the project commenced in November 2021. As of January 31st, the building has been completed. It is called the 'Performing Arts Centre'and it has an indoor basketball court, change rooms, lockers, a kitchen, music and drama rooms, and toilets.

Specialist programs

Pinjarra Senior High School has three specialist programs which students can opt for, including:

Pinjarra Football Academy (PFA)

The Pinjarra Football Academy (PFA) has been in operation since 2008 and is delivered to students over a course of 3 years. From Year 8 through to Year 10, students remain together as a group during Mathematics, English, Humanities and Social Sciences, English and Specialist Football delivered through the Health and Physical Education department. The program is supported by significant community partnerships with Pinjarra Football Club, Peel Thunder and Fremantle Football Club. In 2019, the PFA was extended to include girls in Years 8 and 9.

Academic Extension

The program is for students in Years 8 to 10 who are keen to be challenged, committed to achievement, and who aspire to study at high levels in their senior years of schooling and beyond. Students who are identified as potential candidates for this program will have demonstrated their ability through state and national testing and other school achievements, as well as their approach to learning.

Music

The Pinjarra Music Program offers students from Years 7 to 12 a range of opportunities. Students in Lower School (Year 7 to 9) continue their lessons with their instrumental teachers and round-out their musical training within the Classroom Music Program (studying how to analyse and understand music, read and write both traditional notation and tablature, and use musical software to generate, record and produce music). Students in Year 10 further these skills in preparation for their study of a Certificate II/III in Music in Years 11 and 12. GT Online As of 2024, the school has support for GT Online, an academic state-wide extension program. It offers students from years 7 - 10 extracurricular advanced math, science, English, and HASS lessons. If you are part of GT Online, you skip your regular periods in Maths, English, HASS, and Science, for using that time in GT Online.

Notable alumni

* Mike Barnett politician; Member for Rockingham; former Speaker of the WA Legislative Assembly * John Butlermusician, founder and namesake of John Butler Trio *

Robert Edward Fiennes-Clinton Earl of Lincoln is a title that has been created eight times in the Peerage of England, most recently in 1572. The title was borne by the Dukes of Newcastle-under-Lyne from 1768 to 1988, until the dukedom became extinct. Earls of Lincoln, first ...

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to his grandfather's

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

as the

Earl of Lincoln Earl of Lincoln is a title that has been created eight times in the Peerage of England, most recently in 1572. The title was borne by the Duke of Newcastle, Dukes of Newcastle-under-Lyne from 1768 to 1988, until the dukedom became extinct. Earl ...

* Kamdyn McIntosh

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er for

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

(since 2012)

References

External links

Pinjarra Senior High School Official Website
{{Public high schools in Western Australia, state=collapsed Public high schools in Western Australia Educational institutions established in 1921 1921 establishments in Australia