Brentwood Secondary College

Infobox Secondary school
name = Brentwood Secondary College

motto = "Learning for Leadership, Learning for Understanding, Learning as a community"
established = 1969
type = Public State Secondary College
category_label =
category =
gender_label =
gender = co-educational
president =
principal = Vicki Forbes
asst principal = Barbara Laidlaw, Leon Lilly and David Shelton
free_label_3 = School Council President
free_3 = Tom Schouten
free_label_2 = Business Manger
free_2 = Graham Harvey
teaching_staff = 100 approx
students = 1353 (2007 approx)
grades_label = Years
grades = 7-12
address = Cnr Wastons Road & Health Street
city = Glen Waverley
state = Victoria
country = Australia
district = Eastern Metropolitan Region
colors =
colours = Blue, Green, Red and Yellow
yearbook = Faces
free_label_1 = Houses
free_1 = Macpherson(Blue), Reardon(Green), Armstrong(Red) & Wheeler(Yellow)
website = [http://www.brentwood.vic.edu.au/ www.brentwood.vic.edu.au]
nickname = BSC

Brentwood Secondary College is a co-educational, public high school, located in Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia.

Glen Waverley South Primary School adjoins the College, and they have their own oval, which is used for many sport activities such as cricket, rugby, and AFL.

History

Brentwood Secondary College opened in 1969. The current mottos are “Learning for Leadership”, “Learning for Understanding” and “Learning as a community”. The College logo is a letter 'B' in a square.

In recent years, the number of students attending the College has increased. Brentwood currently has about 1355 students enrolled in years 7 to 12. The year levels are divided into junior school (years 7 and 8), middle school (years 9 and 10) and senior school (years 11 and 12) with 2 year level coordinators for each year level respectively.

Facilities

In 2006, a major redevelopment of the college's facilities to the Science, Math and gymnasium complex costing in excess of $4 million was spent, with Government contributing $2.49 million and the College community contributing $1.74 million. The upgrades included new science and math class room, a new gymnasium with new staff & PE teaching rooms with an up stairs table tennis area.

The College consists of the buildings blocks called 'A', 'C', 'G' and 'J' blocks, a performance centre and a gym, a Senior Learning Centre and multiple portable classrooms. 'A' block is generally for History, Geography, Commerce and Music classes; 'C' block is usually for English and LOTE; 'G' block holds science and mathematics classes; 'J' block has the facilities for textiles, woodwork, art, food technology. There are computer rooms in 'G' block has just been rebuilt with brand new science laboratories and math class rooms with a new computer pod. The portables are coded 'P'. The number of portables has increased over the years due to increasing enrollment numbers.

Brentwood currently has 4 computer labs (1 in A,C,G,P Blocks) and a MAC LAB With 12 Computers in J Block. Brentwood also has 2 computer pods (1 in A & G Block) in addition to the computers in the Library. The Library contains a network printer which allows A4 & A3 colour and black printing which is also capable of scanning and sending files to the network. Brentwood also has plenty of smart boards installed in 2 rooms in G Block, 1 in C Block and 1 in P Block which assist in the teaching of Information Technology and Science.

Brentwoood currently has 2 gyms, the old hall/gym which is planned to be turned into a performance centre and the new one which was just been built under a major redevelopment of the school. The school currently has three basketball courts.

Thinking, Learning and Creativity Project

Brentwood Secondary College was successful in gaining funds from the Victorian Government through the Leading Schools Funding programto develop and trial a new educational program which may be used as a model for other schools.

Thinking, Learning and Creativity (TLC) is a core subject for year 7 students which combine studies in English, History, Geography and Information and Communication Technology for 10 periods per week. The TLC project is an innovation to Brentwood's year 7 Curriculum introduced in 2007.

The Construction of a specially designed, technology rich TLC centre was completed in 2007 and formally declared open by Maxine Morand, Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Women’s Affairs and Member for Mount Waverley.

Curriculum

In year 7, students complete mathematics, English, LOTE, science and physical education for the whole year with a semester of history, geography, music and art. A term is spent in each of: information(1semester) technology, textiles, food technology and woodwork.

During the middle years students are able to choose from a selection of semester (two terms) length studies, with the only mandatory subjects being mathematics, English and LOTE. Subjects on offer are: “English (EN), Mathematics (MA), Science (SC), Commerce (CO), Geography (GG), History/Social Science (HS), German (GE), Japanese (JA), Art (AR), Music (MU), Drama (CA), Physical Education (PE), Health (HL), Woodwork (WW), Food Technology (FT), Textiles (TX), Information Technology (IT), and Technology (TN)” (Brentwood Secondary College website). Though, they are required to earn enough points in each discipline in order to be able to continue into year 11.

Brentwood Secondary College currently offers 32 VCE subjects and access to a variety of VET courses. The College does well in VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) with many students receiving high ENTERs (Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank).

In 2003 Brentwood Secondary College offered 35 3/4 VCE subjects and 5 VET certificates with 184 students enrolled in VCE and 11 in VET certificates. 92% of these students applied for tertiary places. 100% of the students received satisfactory VCE completions. The satisfactory of VET module completions was only 36%. The median study score (out of 50) was 32. The percentage of 40+ study scores acquired being 13%.

LOTE programme

Students are required to complete 3 years of language study. Brentwood Secondary College’s LOTE programme offers Japanese and German.

Brentwood Secondary College has a sister school in Japan. In alternating years Ono Senior High School and Brentwood send students to the other school to be hosted by students' families.

References

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External links

* [http://www.brentwood.vic.edu.au Brentwood Secondary College] : Official website
* [http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/~ono-hs/ Ono Senior High School] : Sister School's Official website (both in Japanese and in English)