Mentone Girls' Grammar School is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...

for girls, located in Mentone, a bayside suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

. Established in 1899 as the Mentone High School for Girls', the

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

has a non-selective enrolment policy and currently caters for over 700 students, with girls enrolled in the

Early Learning Centre The Early Learning Centre (ELC) is a British retailer that sells toys aimed at younger children. It is part of The Entertainer (through its parent company TEAL Group Holdings). It was a subsidiary of Mothercare until 2019. History The orig ...

(3 and 4 years of age),

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

to Year 12. Mentone Girls' Grammar is a member of Girls Sport Victoria (GSV), the

Junior School Heads Association of Australia The Independent Primary School Heads of Australia (IPSHA) formerly Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), is an incorporated body representing the heads of independent primary schools in Australia. Officially established in Septem ...

(JSHAA),Junior School Heads Association of Australia
(accessed:15-06-2007) the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), the National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS), the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria (AISV), and the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia.
(accessed:15-06-2007) The School is an

Australian Securities & Investments Commission The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is an independent commission of the Australian Government tasked as the national corporate regulator. ASIC's role is to regulate company and financial services and enforce laws to pro ...

MoneySmart School and an eSmart School. In 2014 Mentone Girls' Grammar School became the first school in the world to receive the Certificate of International Education with the

Council of International Schools The Council of International Schools (CIS) is a membership organization aimed at international education. CIS was formed in 2003. It has over 1,500 institutional members consisting of over 800 schools and 600 colleges/universities, located in ...

(CIS).

History

Mentone Girls' Grammar School was established in 1899 as the Mentone High School for Girls, by the four Simpson sisters at "Cobbalanna", in Como Parade, Mentone. "Cobbalanna" is now the name given to the new VCE Centre. In 1924, the school was re-opened as the Mentone Girls' Grammar School (St. Margaret's) under the leadership of the then

headmistress A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

, Evaline Mary Pearson. Mentone Girls' Grammar became affiliated with the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

in 1962, and subsequently the

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of ...

was added to the school crest. Parts of the campus are named after recent headmistresses and headmaster. For example, the Prudence Lewty hall was named after former headmistress Prudence Lewty.

Campus

Mentone Girls' Grammar School is located on single

campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Mentone, directly adjacent to Mentone Beach. Features of the campus include: a pre–

tertiary Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to: * Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago * Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...

learning centre for students in Years 11 and 12 known as the "Cobbalanna Senior College", the

Junior School A junior school is a type of school which provides primary education to children, often in the age range from 8 and 13, following attendance at an infant school, which covers the age range 5–7. Since both infant and junior schools provide pri ...

with specialised facilities, the Simpson Art Centre with facilities for

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

and

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

, "The Bay Cafe" is a cafeteria style lunch space, the David Hunt centre (named after the former Head Master) utilized for performing arts, the Annette Kellerman

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

wing and pool, named for the underwater ballerina of the same name, whose mother was a member of staff at the school during the 1920s,

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

multi-media Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as writing, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. This is in contrast to tradition ...

laboratories, and

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...

spaces. Sporting facilities include

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

s, a

gym A gym, short for gymnasium (: gymnasiums or gymnasia), is an indoor venue for exercise and sports. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasion". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learn ...

nasium, a 25-metre outdoor heated

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

and a smaller indoor heated pool used by the ELC and Prep students. The school also makes use of outside facilities such as Mentone

Beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

. In 2019, Mentone Girls' Grammar opened their Wellbeing Precinct, transforming one third of the entire campus to make way for facilities such as an indoor pool with diving boards, multi-purpose courts for netball and basketball, and a synthetic multi-use pitch for soccer, hockey and tennis.

School crest

The Mentone Girls' Grammar School crest was designed in 1924, by

, Mary Pearson. To complement the school crest, Pearson developed the school

motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

of ''Vero Nihil Verius'', which may be

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

as "Nothing truer than Truth". The crest is based on the design of

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

's shield, and is made up of four components: * The three

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

s represent the

Holy Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three ...

: God the

Father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological fat ...

; God the

Son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current ...

and God the

Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...

. *The three wavy gold lines symbolise the school's location by a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

. *The bishop's

was added in 1963 to signify the School's association with the

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, originally known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In 2016, responding to a peer-reviewed study ...

. *The colours of murrey, blue and gold, also add significance. Murrey, a traditional

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

colour, represents the

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

. Blue represents both the

sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

and the

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

and indicates the height and depth of

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, Attitude (psychology), attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, non-human animals, and ...

. Gold represents the

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

s of the

shore A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

. Former headmistress, Prudence Lewty and

bursar A bursar (derived from ''wikt:bursa, bursa'', Latin for 'Coin purse, purse') is a professional Administrator of the government, administrator in a school or university often with a predominantly financial role. In the United States, bursars usual ...

Mary Coxall added a

laurel wreath A laurel wreath is a symbol of triumph, a wreath (attire), wreath made of connected branches and leaves of the bay laurel (), an aromatic broadleaf evergreen. It was also later made from spineless butcher's broom (''Ruscus hypoglossum'') or cher ...

around the crest in 1963. In heraldic terms, the laurel wreath identifies

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

es returning from

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force co ...

and technically should only be displayed on crests which have been carried into

. For this reason the laurel wreath was removed in 1999.Mentone Girls' Grammar School- School crest
(accessed:15-06-2007)

Houses

There are 4 Houses at Mentone Girls Grammar School. *Grammar House (Red) *St Margaret's (Saints) House (Gold) *McCowan House (Green) *Kent House (Blue) Annual house competitions include house athletics, house cross country, house swimming, house enterprise, house music, house dance and house aerobics.

Co-curriculum

Sport

Mentone Girls' Grammar School has been a member of Girls Sport Victoria since its foundation in 2001. Through this association, students from Year 7 to 12 are given the opportunity to compete against 24 other girls' schools, in up to twelve different

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

s. Students from Year 4 to 6 participate in the local CDPSSA inter-school sports program.

GSV premierships

Mentone Girls' Grammar has won the following GSV premiership. * Hockey – 2002 * Division 1 Diving - 2024

Notable alumnae

Alumnae Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

of Mentone Girls' Grammar School are known as Old Girls and may elect to join the schools

alumni association An alumni association or alumnae association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students ( alumni). In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, school A school is the educati ...

, the Old Girls Club (OGC). Some notable Old Girls' include: *

Zoë Badwi Zoë Badwi (born 4 May 1978) is an Australian singer and songwriter.Q & A With ...

– Australian singer-songwriter, model, and actress *

Dulcie Boling Dulcie Boling (born Elizabeth Dulcie Boling on 29 March 1936) is an Australian businessperson and magazine editor. She was born in Kyabram, Victoria in Australia. She was editor of New Idea magazine from 1977 to 1993. Boling was a senior executive ...

– Magazine editor and company directorBiographical Dictionary of Contemporary Australia
(accessed:31-07-2007) *

Nicole Bradtke Nicole Bradtke (née Provis) (born 22 September 1969) is a retired professional tennis player from Australia. Bradtke won three singles and nine doubles titles on the WTA Tour. She reached the semifinals of the 1988 French Open, and won a bro ...

– Professional tennis player * Lucy Christopher – Professional writer of young adult novels *

Annette Kellerman Annette Marie Sarah Kellermann (6 July 1886 – 6 November 1975) was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress, and writer, usually spelt with a single final n as Annette Kellerman. Kellermann was one of the first wome ...

n – Swimmer, aquatic performer and film actressAustralian Dictionary of Biography- Kellermann, Annette Marie Sarah (1886 - 1975)
(accessed:15-06-2007) * Jenny Kinder –

Choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

; Founding director of TasDance; Head of School of Dance at the

Victorian College of the Arts The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is the arts school at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It is part of the university's Faculty of Fine Arts and Music (FFAM). It is located near the Melbourne city centre on the Southbank campus ...

* Vera Mackie – Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow, History,

The University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state of Victoria. Its ...

* Alison Downie – athlete

References

External links

Mentone Girls' Grammar School WebsiteAustralian Anglican Schools Network

Girls Sport Victoria
{{Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia schools, state=autocollapse Girls' schools in Victoria (state) Educational institutions established in 1899 Anglican schools in Melbourne International Baccalaureate schools in Australia Junior School Heads Association of Australia Member Schools 1899 establishments in Australia Buildings and structures in the City of Kingston (Victoria)