Our School

Our History

Kyneton High School is a single-campus, year 7 to 12, co-educational school located 80 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.

Our school was originally established in 1912 as Kyneton High School on a site in Piper Street. In 1928 the school was relocated to the current site and operated in the building which is now primarily devoted to Administration, Wellbeing, Performing Arts, offices and the staffroom.

In 1966 a technical component was added to the school and it became known as Kyneton Technical-High School.

In 1985, a Vertical Unit Structure was introduced in Years 8-10, STC and Group 2 subjects were offered to Year 12 students along with Group 1 subjects and Year 11 courses became semester length.

In 1989 the Junior Complex was opened and in 1991 the second stage of the building program was completed, which included the Boomerang, Textiles, Art and Home Economics buildings.

Year 8 returned to a horizontal structure in 1992, with Years 9 and 10 returning to a partly horizontal structure in 1993.

Kyneton High School - Front Building

Kyneton Secondary College became a ‘School of the Future’ in 1995.

In 1996 the V.U S. was replaced with a horizontal approach to curriculum delivery incorporating Enrichment and Extension Electives and providing the opportunity for Year 10 students to study VCE Geography or Information Technology.

In 1998 Vocational Education subjects were introduced at Year 11. In 1999 the Table Small Groups cooperative learning approach was introduced at Year 7 with teacher teams and was extended to Year 8 in 2000. In 2002, the range of VCE units available at Year 10 was increased and extension electives incorporated with general electives. All year 10 blocks were aligned with VCE blocks in 2004 thus allowing greater flexibility for students in year 10 to do VCE subjects. The new Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) was introduced in Year 11 in 2003 and was extended to Year 12 in 2004.

The Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) was progressively implemented in 2007 for years 7 to 10.

In 2012, the School celebrated its 100th anniversary with over 2000 people attending the School for the celebrations on February 25th and 26th.

In 2012, the School introduced the BOOST Literacy program for all students in Years 7 to 9 and the pathways focused, Engaging Your Future Program for Years 10 to 12.

Original Architectural Drawing Restored

Retired staff member, Jean Stringer was clearing out some archived records at St Pauls Anglican Church in Kyneton when she found an original architects drawing of the school buildings of the then, Kyneton High School. Today, this building forms our main administration area at the front of the school.

Local artifact and document restorers, Duncan and Tina Rolley volunteered to restore the damaged drawing and present it to our school. After a very careful restoration of the fragile document, Duncan and Tina presented the drawing to then principal, Mark Ridgeway, on Wednesday 24th February. Also attending the presentation were Jean Stringer and local historian, Mal Closter.

Mr Ridgeway was very pleased to receive the restored plans and thanked Duncan and Tina and their firm, Artifact Conservation for their wonderful gift. Mr Ridgeway also thanked Jean for recovering the document, recognising its importance and organising with Duncan and Tina to have it restored.

The finding of the document is very timely in the year that new architectural plans are being drawn up for our major renovation and rebuild due to start later this year.

Memorial Garden Opening: November 2015

On Monday 30th November 2015, we held the formal opening of our restored memorial gardens at the front of the school. The gardens were first developed on our old site in Piper Street in 1918, when roses were planted in an avenue at the suggestion of the then head master, Mr Stuart. The roses were planted in honour of school enlistments and soldiers nominated by local subscribers willing to purchase a rose. The full list of the soldiers represented by the memorial roses was first published in the Kyneton Guardian on November 18th 1919.

More recently , the garden has been restored, largely through the efforts of our community gardening group led by Renee Taylor along with support from the Kyneton RSL, our maintenance manager, Brad Whitmore and local landscape gardeners, Dale and Helen Gillis. New name plaques for each serviceman were installed thanks to an Anzac Centenary grant and the work of Huntly Barton.

The official ceremony was attended by past and present staff and students as well as various community representatives and friends of our school. The service was conducted by Rev Ian Howarth from Kyneton Anglican Church with Mike Gretton and John Riches speaking on behalf of the Kyneton RSL. Principal, Mark Ridgeway, gave a brief history of the garden and Renee spoke on behalf of the gardening group and thanked and recognised all those involved in the restoration. Students, Taylah Gillis and Estelle Winkelman spoke about their research project on the lives of each of the listed soldiers and read exerts from two of their investigations. Kyneton RSL Vice President, John Riches led the remembrance ceremony and bugler, Jenny Batchelor played the Last Post and Rouse. The service finished with the singing of the National Anthem. Morning tea was then served in the School Hall – many thanks to Annie, Laurie and Michelle from Food Tech for preparing the refreshments.

Kyneton High School - Memorial Garden

Learning Communities

Building sound habits for life

Our school is organised into three Learning Communities. These include the Junior (Yrs 7 & 8), Middle (Yrs 9 & 10) and Senior (Yrs 11 & 12) Communities.

Learning Communities enable teachers to work closely with smaller groups of students and give students a strong sense of identity and place within the larger school.

Learning Community Leaders and Year level Leaders may be contacted during school hours on matters relating to your child’s wellbeing and progress.

Our Sub-Schools are also supported by the Year Level Leaders.

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100th Anniversary

A Century of History, Tradition and Success - Kyneton Secondary College Centenary!

2012 was the Centenary year for our school. Kyneton Secondary College (formerly Kyneton High School) was officially opened on 26th February 1912 after negotiations between the Shire of Kyneton and the then Director of Education, Mr Frank Tate. 62 students were enrolled on that first day compared to our current 650.

Visitors to our school enjoyed an outstanding weekend for our Centenary. The Minister for Education, the Hon Martin Dixon, MP unveiled our centenary plaque and one of our oldest former students, David Wells, cut the cake. Nearly 2000 people visited our school over the weekend.

250 people attended the Reunion Dinner at the Bowling Club on the Saturday night and over 50 former staff attended the Staff Reunion on the Sunday. It was great to see so many people take the opportunity to renew friendships and catch up with each other. We had many visitors coming from all over Australia, including Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and NSW.

Centenary Plaque – Now Installed!!

Our Centenary Plaque has been mounted in the front wall of the main school building to complement the original foundation stone.

We obtained special permission from Heritage Victoria to have the work done.

The installation and the plaque itself are a kind donation from local stonemason, Huntly Barton and his business – W.T.Jones and Son. Our thanks go to Huntly and his team for their wonderful gift to our College.

Visitors to our Centenary celebrations earlier in the year will remember that the Plaque was formally unveiled by the State Minister for Education, The Hon. Martin Dixon MP and our College Captains, Zoe Maddocks and Huw Davey.

Kyneton High School - House System

House System

Kyneton High School is divided up into four House areas for the purpose of in-school competitions. All students belong to a House and are encouraged to compete in the wide range of activities available. In 2012, we introduced the House Cup to recognise the success of the House that achieves the highest aggregate number of points from the various House competitions.

Congratulations to students who have been appointed as House Captains. House Captains carry a broad range of responsibilities and are responsible for organising participation in House based events and competitions. They are also members of the student leadership group.

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Kyneton High School - School Location

Location

Kyneton High School is located one hour North West of Melbourne in the picturesque township of Kyneton, along the Calder Highway corridor.

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