Suzanne Cory High School (abbreviated as SCHS) is a government-funded, co-educational, selective entry secondary school located in , in the western region of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. The school caters for students from

Year 9 Year 9 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is the tenth or eleventh year of compulsory education. Australia In Australia, Year 9 is usually the tenth year of compul ...

to Year 12. Enrolment is offered to those having reached a high aptitude in the annual selective entry high schools entrance examination run by the

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pu ...

Overview

The school was established in 2011 with two hundred inaugural Year 9 students. In 2014, the school, for the first time, accommodated a full cohort of eight hundred students, ranging from Years 9 to 12. It is one of three additional selective high schools in Victoria, alongside

John Monash Science School The John Monash Science School is a government-funded co-educational academically selective and specialist secondary day school, located on the campus of Monash University, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The school specialises in science ...

and

Nossal High School Nossal High School, also referred to as Nossal or NHS, is a Government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school, located in the Melbourne suburb of Berwick, Victoria, Australia. The school (named after Sir Gustav No ...

, that were established as the result of a government policy of expansion, increasing the number of fully selective government schools in Victoria. Prior to the addition of these schools,

Mac.Robertson Girls' High School , motto_translation = Mastery of self , established = , type = Government-funded single-sex selective secondary day school , principal = Sue Harrap , location = South Melbourne, Victoria , country = Australia , coordi ...

and

Melbourne High School Melbourne High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1905, the school caters for boys from Year 9 ...

were the sole academic selective entry schools in Victoria. Located in the suburb of Werribee, the school is in close proximity to

Werribee Mercy Hospital :''See Mercy Hospital (disambiguation), Mercy Hospital for other medical facilities with the Mercy name.'' Werribee Mercy Hospital, located in Werribee, Victoria on the Princes Highway, about 25 km west of Melbourne, is a public general hos ...

and Hoppers Crossing railway station. Suzanne Cory High School is situated adjacent to Victoria University, giving students access to university facilities, programs, and academic staff. The school is named in honour of the renowned Australian biologist, Professor

Suzanne Cory Suzanne Cory (born 11 March 1942) is an Australian molecular biologist. She has worked on the genetics of the immune system and cancer and has lobbied her country to invest in science. She is married to fellow scientist Jerry Adams, also a W ...

. In tribute to Cory, the school logo depicts a gene strand, the aurantiacus, which was discovered by her.

Enrolment

Entry into selective schools is competitive. In 2011, exclusively 955 places were available for over 5000 applicants. Students in their second year of secondary schooling are applicable to sit a three hour long examination which measures aptitude in six component tests: numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, reading comprehension, mathematics, creative writing, and analytical writing. The DET allows a maximum of five percent of Year 8 students from any given Australian school to be admitted into four selective schools: Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, Melbourne High School, Nossal High School, and Suzanne Cory High School. However, five percent of enrolments are filled through the ''Principal's Discretion Category''. Students who are denied first round offers are given a chance to be seated in an interview. Over one hundred applicants are placed in this interview for less than twenty positions. In addition, the 'Equity Considerations policy', adapted by the DET allows ten percent of Year 9 enrolments to be filled through this manner. Students with Aboriginal or

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often groupe ...

backgrounds or students whose parents have a Commonwealth Health Care Card are eligible under this policy.

Academics

Curriculum

The design incorporates ICT arrangements for

eLearning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refer ...

. Year 9 and 10 courses are similar, with concentration on core subjects: English, mathematics, and science. Elective subjects are available to students throughout these years in which students can select from a variety of disciplines to undertake. Choices of electives include, but are not limited to: food technology, music, drama, media studies, and visual arts subjects. During these two years, studying a language is compulsory. The school offers three languages: French,

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. Students select either French or Mandarin Chinese to study in these two years and have the option to continue study into VCE. Latin is offered from Year 10. In addition, classroom music is compulsory in Year 9, which allows students to develop a culturally informed understanding of Western Musical practices. Instrumental music is offered as an extracurricular activity.

VCE acceleration

The majority of students undertake VCE starting in Year 11. However, the school allows Year 11 students to voluntarily undertake a unit 3/4 VCE subject. This strategy is similar to the ''

Select Entry Accelerated Learning A Select Entry Accelerated Learning (SEAL) program is a form of streaming used in government secondary schools in Victoria, Australia to provide a focused educational environment for academically gifted children. The program allows students to ...

'' one year early VCE plan, which enables students to become more prepared for VCE, with the intention to gain higher outcomes. In 2013, 178 of the school's 200 inaugural Year 11 students completed one or more unit 3/4 subjects.

Academic results

Many of the inaugural group of year twelve students completed unit 3/4 VCE studies in 2013. The median study score was 36 and the percentage of students attaining a study score of 40 or above was twenty-four percent. These first VCE results placed Suzanne Cory High School within the top twenty-five highest performing schools in the state in 2013. Suzanne Cory High School was ranked sixth out of all state secondary schools in Victoria based on VCE results in 2018.

Student life

House system

All students at Suzanne Cory High School are allocated to one of four houses upon entry to the school. Each of the four houses is named after a mountain in the western region of Victoria. All the houses are associated with a colour, mascot, and badge. * Blackwood - Horse and knight motifs * Cottrell - Phoenix motif * Kororoit - Dragon motif * Rothwell - Griffin motif The house program involves a number of whole school competitions in several different domains including sports, debating, and music. This includes whole school events such as an athletics carnival, house chorals, and participation in charitable events such as the Relay for Life and World's Greatest Shave. Students earn house points through the school values card system by demonstrating the school's prescribed values of respect, aspiration, and contribution. These are also earned by students in class, through co-curricular involvement, or outside of class.

Sports

Within the school there are various sporting opportunities that students are encouraged to become involved in. Sport is a compulsory subject for Year 9 and 10 students, in addition to practical physical education requirements. In addition to the sports program, whole school opportunities such as the school swimming and athletics carnivals are held in the first term. These events set a platform for the school's culture and application of the core values. The school's house program is also used as a vehicle through lunch time sporting competitions where the students participate for their house in various team sports. At the inter-school sport level, students participate in a wide range of sports against other schools in the Wyndham region. If successful, winning teams represent Wyndham against other schools in the

Western Metropolitan Region Western Metropolitan Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which elects five members to the Victorian Legislative Council (also referred to as the upper house) by proportional representation. The region was create ...

Affiliations

Suzanne Cory High School maintains its affiliations with the other selective schools in Victoria. Notably, the school has strong ties with

. The relationship is unique in that the two schools are the only wholly selective co-educational high schools in Victoria. The schools engage annually in the Terry Bennett Cup, a friendly inter-school competition between year 9 students. The schools interchange each year to host the competition.

Staff

* Principal, Martha Goodridge-Kelly * Assistant Principal, Luke Mandouit * Acting Assistant Principals, Laura Ruddick & Travis Hand * 70 teaching staff * 17 Non-teaching staff

Past principals

References

External links

School Website
{{Authority control Werribee, Victoria Public high schools in Melbourne 2011 establishments in Australia Educational institutions established in 2011 Selective schools in Victoria (Australia) Schools in Wyndham