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 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.

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.