Wellington Secondary College

Wellington Secondary College

Caring, Striving, Learning
Address
91 Police Road
Mulgrave, Victoria
Information
Type State school
Established 1972
Principal Mr Edward "Hugh" Blaikie
Teaching staff 104
Years 7-12
Gender Coeducation
Enrollment 1,441
Colour(s) Blue and Yellow         
Newspaper

*Wellington Journal (Fortnightly Newsletter)

  • The Wellington Way (Termly Newsletter)
Yearbook Vanellus
Website Wellington Secondary College


Wellington Secondary College is a coeducational state school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

The College is divided into three Sub-Schools and six Year Levels: Junior School (7–8), Middle School (9–10) and Senior School (11–12). Distinguished former Victorian Bushrangers cricketer Brendan McArdle is a teacher at the school.

History

Wellington was established in 1972 as Dingley Area High School. Its name changed to Mulgrave High School, then to Wellington High School in January 1973. Wellington was originally intended for the Dingley area, but was relocated by the Education Department to the Mulgrave area.

Coat-of-arms and motto

The emblem was updated in 2002 to have a more contemporary feel than the old design, but while still retaining key elements.[1]

The school motto is 'Caring, Striving, Learning'.

Principals

Founding principal of the school was the late A.M. (Gus) Fogarty, from 1973 to 1977. M.B(Max) Peters was appointed principal in 1978 after the death of Mr. Forgarty in 1977. Max Peters retired in July 1982 and Jack Landvogt was appointed in 1984, then retired in 1986. John Coulson was appointed in 1987, and introduced the school motto (Caring, Striving, Learning) and the college crest. Mr. John Coulson retired in 2004 and the principal, Ms. Mary-Jo Putrino, was appointed. In mid 2012, Ms. Mary-Jo Putrino retired, and a new principal, Mr Hugh Blakie was appointed.

Houses

Swimming Sports

The House System commenced in 1988 and the titles are derived from the names of four ships from the historic First Fleet that landed the first permanent European settlers from Great Britain in Australia two hundred years earlier in 1788 under the command of the Governor, Captain Arthur Phillip.

Each house is led by two Senior House Captains (year 12) and six Vice House Captains (years 8, 10 and 11)

Students participate in a number of sporting and non-sporting activities during the year to gain points towards the M.B. Peter Cup for their house. There are three major house sporting carnivals in a year. They are the Swimming, Athletics and Cross-Country carnivals.

School layout

Wellington's new gymnasium

The school has two large courtyards surrounded by blocks of classrooms. There is an A, B, C, G, H, J, M (replaced P Block), R, and T (Temporary block currently being used due to renovation of G and J Blocks) blocks. The school also has six basketball courts and a large open area which is referred to as the "oval". There is also a large multi-purpose assembly hall with adjoining change rooms and a small gym. Wellington also has a Senior school centre which was named the Hamilton Centre. There will be a $7.0 million upgrade to the school's facilities in 2008. The new upgrade will include a new junior school centre, an upgrade to the halls that will include a new performing arts centre and relocation of the school's "R" Block.[2]

Facade of the new R block
Wellington's Sporting ground

Building program

On Monday 13 July 2009 the new junior school centre (replacing "P" Block) or also referred as the "M" Block was opened, the new gymnasium is almost complete and "R" block has been relocated to make space for "M" Block. The first Gymnasium has been completed and work is currently progressing on the second gymnasium. J block and G block are currently under lock-down as renovations are taking place. Term 4 witnessed the whole of the western courtyard demolished to make way for a designer landscape courtyard complete with brick work seating and shade sales. Work is beginning on the new state of the art performing arts centre complete with 288 seat theatre.

The original layout of the school was a government design from the mid-1970s. this was implemented and built at various schools around the state. Brentwood Secondary Colleges original layout was that of Wellington Secondary Colleges. And a gym identical to Wellington's Original gym can be found at Mount Waverley Secondary College.

M block exterior
M block gallery

Curriculum

English

English is compulsory for all year levels, with the exception of students studying ESL (English as a Second Language). Students undertake many varied activities in developing their skills in this subject area. At the VCE level, mainstream students can choose to study either English, Literature or English Language (to be introduced in 2008 for units 1 & 2).

LOTE (language Other Than English

The Foreign languages studied at Wellington Secondary College are Mandarin and French. It was French and Indonesian that students could study but later on Indonesian was removed making the only foreign language students could learn was French

Students undertake French, Mandarin and ESL (English as a Second Language. Only for international students) from years 7 to 8, and have the choice to study it in years 9 and up.

VCE studies

Accounting
Automotive Technology Studies (VCE VET)
Biology
Building & Construction Carpentry (VCE VET)
Business (VCE VET)
Business Management
Chemistry
Community Services Work (VCE VET)
Drama (VCE Units 3&4 2011)
Design and Technology
Economics
Electrotechnology (VCE VET)
English
English Language
English (ESL)
French
Food And Technology
Further Mathematics
General Mathematics
Health and Human Development
Horticulture (VCE VET)
Hospitality - Operations (VCE VET)
Information Technology
IT Applications
Legal Studies
Literature
Mathematical Methods
Multimedia (VCE VET)
Physical Education
Physics
Psychology
Revolutions
Specialist Mathematics
Studio Arts
Visual Communication and Design
Wholesale Retail Personal Services (VFE)
[3]

Uniform

Winter Uniform

Uniform is compulsory at the College. Student leaders wear a distinctive blazer with a special pocket that denotes their actual appointment. Students in Years 7–10 wear a royal blue jumper that features the College emblem while the senior students wear a similar navy blue jumper. During Winter everybody wears a tie with the girls wearing a shirt and skirt or slacks and boys with shirt with trousers. During Summer Girls wear summer dress while boys wear the same for winter excluding the tie. Shoes should black leather. There is also Sports Uniform which helps identify the colour of a student's house. A Uniform shop is located at the I. J. Hamilton Senior School Centre, entry via the door in the car park.

Sports

1977

Boys Intermediate (Yr.8/9)All-High Soccer Runners-Up

1979

Boys Senior (Yr.10–12) All-High Soccer Runners-Up

1980

Boys Senior (Yr.10–12) All-High Soccer Champions

Coach: Mr Bohdan Babijczuk

Team: Tibor Hagymas (Capt.), Sean Coulter (V/Capt), Gary Evison,Dragan Dejanovic, Smiljan Papac, Senad Sabitovic, Joe Sumic,John Vafiadis, Brendan Runge, Robert Velardo, Chris Halsey, Graham McCole, Ivan Adjukovic, Jim Frangou & Danny Bojcic

2000

Boys VCE soccer team won the state championship.

2007

Year 7 Table Tennis team won the state championship.

Media

An article[4] suggested some schools were 'selling' places to international students and Wellington was one of the accused. The other being Glen Waverley Secondary College. Assistant principal Geoff Ellis said the school had room to grow and had no need to turn back domestic students. He reassured the school community that 'no local student is denied a place in favour of an international student' in the weekly Wellington Diary that was given out on the 7th of December 2007.[5]

Other

Wombles

"Wombles" were introduced in 1978. It is a term used for students (from years 7–10) who are rostered to provide a day of service to the College. Students are permitted to wear casual clothes when they have to "womble". Wombles from years 7, 8 and 9 usually clean up the school yard from rubbish. Whereas a year 10 "senior womble" perform tasks such as distributing notices, running messages and locking the locker bays.

Wellington building project

The school has been given a big sum of money to improve the school's facilities. Such as the new M block which was officially opened on Friday, 21 August 2009. There are more facilities being improved or added on like a new G block, 2 brand new gyms, and a new J block.

Palm Pilots and the change to electronic role marking.

Everyday, a couple of year 8s or 9s are rostered on moodle (see moodle) to do "Palm Pilot" duties, which involves them going and recording the absences for the day. But in late 2011 it changed to Electronic role marking which requires teachers to carry a laptop or net book around with them. The reason for this change is the palm pilot method disrupts the students learning and is hard to catch up for the days that they are assigned for this job.

Moodle

Wellington has a learning website that allows students and teachers to log in and upload IT assignments and do other things. You can even make a blog. The moodle is still being updated for better functions and to be more user friendly. it is mainly utilized by the I.T department, but other class teachers can make subject pages if they so desire.

College anthem

Wellington Secondary College has a school anthem, 'The Wellington Way'. A competition was run in 1995 for students to compose and submit an anthem that represented the school and its students. It is sung on special occasions like assemblies and Awards Nights.

References

Some of the links are old

  1. ↑ "The College Emblem". Wellington Secondary College. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  2. ↑ Annual Report to the School Community
  3. ↑ Victorian Certificate of Education Index - VCE - VCAA
  4. ↑ Local students 'get priority' - Local - General - Monash Journal
  5. ↑ http://www.wellingtonsc.vic.edu.au/images/stories/Newsletters/20071207_diary%20december%207.pdf

Coordinates: 37°56′01″S 145°10′11″E / 37.93361°S 145.16972°E / -37.93361; 145.16972

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