Independent Schools Guide 2023: How Geelong Grammar School is creating empowered learners and leaders

On any day of the week, Geelong Grammar’s Toorak Campus is a bustling place.

Some children will be picking the fresh vegetables they’ve grown in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden before heading to the kitchen to prepare a nutritious meal, while others will be learning about water safety in the swimming pool or taking part in a yoga or meditation session.

In the bright and spacious classrooms, students might be exploring science or art or expanding their literacy and numeracy skills.

The co-educational campus caters for early learning (at the Early Learning Centre) to Year 6 and focuses on building strong and nurturing relationships between educators and students.

A holistic program of learning experiences across the core and specialist curriculum supports students in exploring their interests and discovering individual talents. This is all underpinned by a commitment to student wellbeing and Positive Education.

“Positive Education is based around the idea that relationships are everything – with yourself and others,” says Deputy Head of Toorak Campus Georgie Karamaloudis.

“It recognises that wellbeing is important and that while we can’t be happy all the time, we can build tools to recognise when we’re feeling frustrated, for example, and to understand why. We help students understand their emotions, see things from different perspectives and give them a toolkit to understand themselves and their thinking.”

Small class sizes ensure every child is known well by every member of staff at Toorak, with that close relationship and sense of belonging supporting greater student learning.

This year, children across the year levels are learning about how they are the same, how they are different, and that there is a place in the school and the world for everyone.

The facilities at the Toorak Campus include a kitchen with multiple ovens, a swimming pool, yoga and meditation studios, a gymnasium, an oval, open-plan learning spaces, a science room and an arts facility equipped with a kiln. There are also music classrooms and spaces for private music classes.

“Each year level has a shared space with furniture designed for flexible learning, and there are quiet spaces and collaborative spaces where children can also choose to work,” says Head of Toorak Campus Nicole Ginnane.

“In every year-level space, children can cook and make things, and there are also wet spaces, so they can learn seamlessly. Teachers can use each space according to how the students learn best, and they have everything they need at their fingertips. For example, during a maths lesson, teachers and students may want to use different materials to make abstract ideas concrete and everything they need is right there.”

Buddy and house systems ensure the ELC to Year 6 students build relationships vertically and horizontally, and close connections exist with Geelong Grammar’s campus in Corio. This makes the transition from Toorak to Corio at the end of Year 6 less daunting.

A bus departs Toorak Campus each morning to take older students to Corio and returns them to the campus at the end of the school day, but some children choose to become weekly boarders.

By the time they do leave the Toorak Campus, children have become empowered learners and leaders. They may have been appointed cultural captains, sports captains, run campus church services and assemblies, or taken part in community service initiatives.

“When they leave Toorak, they are independent, organised and responsible, and they know they can be who they want to be. They’ve grown academically and as a whole person,” says Karamaloudis.

“Our students are self-motivated, and they have a joy in learning. They have a strong sense of fairness; they speak up and they have character,” adds Ginnane.

The co-educational setting also sees boys and girls developing respectful and equal relationships. A program called Think Equal champions gender equity from the beginning of school life through picture storybooks that highlight love, kindness, gratitude and friendship no matter what a person’s gender. This has powerful and positive impacts.

“The boys’ footy team might have a player missing, and a girl will join that team and know she is valued for what she brings. The children just see each other as equal friends,” says Ginnane.

So, how would the school describe students at the Toorak Campus?

“If I had to describe our students, I’d use words like compassionate, courageous and curious. They always want to know more, they are never complacent, and they are not afraid to ask questions because they know this is a safe place to make mistakes and learn and grow from them,” says Karamaloudis.

As the children move on from Year 6 and begin their secondary years, their memories of their days at Geelong Grammar’s Toorak Campus are treasured.

“One mum of a student who left us last year to move to our Corio Campus said her son is happy in Year 7, but he’ll never forget how happy and valued he felt here,” says Ginnane.

“When they are with us, they know they are part of a community that cares.”

GEELONG GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Bostock House
139 Noble Street, Newtown VIC 3220

Corio Campus
50 Biddlecombe Avenue, Corio VIC 3214

Timbertop Campus
Private Mail Bag, Mansfield, VIC 3722

Toorak Campus
14 Douglas Street, Toorak, VIC 3142

Website: www.ggs.vic.edu.au
Enquiries: 03 5273 9307 / admissions@ggs.vic.edu.au
Years: ELC to Year 12
Denomination: Anglican
Gender: Co-educational
Fees: Please see the school’s website
Boarding: Yes
Scholarships: Yes
ATAR (median for 2022): 81.32

This article appeared in Domain’s 2023 Independent Schools Guide.