To become unstoppable a girl must first be set into motion...
Strathcona is the catalyst of a life-shaping momentum, ensuring each girl discovers a trajectory as unique and full of potential as she is.
Upon their respective journeys, Strathcona girls break the stereotypes of private education — and we are proud of it. Action, meaning and fulfilment take precedence, and are aptly expressed in the School motto: ‘Bravely, Faithfully, Happily.’
Through a culture of academic excellence and a rich selection of co-curricular activities, girls grow and thrive. Strong, resilient, empowered — at Strathcona these are more than just words. We imbue them with impetus tied to each girl’s uniqueness and personal ambitions.
As a student’s voice and identity emerge, so does her character. And it’s here that Strathcona truly sets itself apart. A Strathcona girl is balanced in mind, body and spirit. Her robust sense of self is founded upon respect, integrity, compassion, courage and genuine community spirit. Being ready for life isn’t about bettering others — it’s about improvement within.
In essence, Strathcona affords its girls the opportunity to discover who they really are, and to pursue their life’s potential by being themselves.
Or, put another way:
unstoppable girls begin at Strathcona.
Being yourself is a lifelong reward.
In each of us lies unique potential.
Sometimes it’s just under the surface, bursting to get out. Other times it flows deep, coalescing and rising, a swirl of steady motion.
At Strathcona we identify that rich vein of potential in each of our students, nurture it, enrich it, and guide its course until it’s ready to reveal itself to the world. Every girl is different, but common to them all is the quality we instil in them — unstoppability.
This prospectus is a short introduction to the philosophy and values that drive the Strathcona experience — an experience that brings the lifelong reward of truly knowing and being yourself.
I invite you to learn more about Strathcona Girls Grammar. We wholeheartedly welcome the opportunity to share with you this most important time in your daughter’s life.
Lorna Beegan
Principal
Why enrol at a girls' School?
Rest assured, the decisions you are faced with for your daughter’s education are shared by parents everywhere. Among the most fundamental of these is whether to enrol her in a co-educational or single-sex school.
To be fair, each has its merits. But, increasingly, there is a swelling amount of international research indicating that girls perform at their best — academically and personally — in a single-sex educational environment.
Through our junior, middle and senior years, Strathcona is a girls’ school. Our long and proud tradition of providing high-quality education is augmented by our emphasis on developing each girl according to her own strengths and interests. A girl is at her best when she is free to be herself, and though girls-only schools everywhere provide an environment for this to happen, at Strathcona we embed it into our culture.
So precisely what does the research find? In essence:
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While not the purview of research data, Strathcona can attest to the benefits of health and wellbeing programs tailored especially
for girls at every stage of their journey, as well as uncompromising teaching that is personalised to the specific ways in which girls learn.
But perhaps the greatest advantage of choosing a girls’ school for your daughter, from a Strathcona viewpoint, is that no matter what her interests
and passions are, or evolve into, she will always be able to pursue them to the fullest. She can be who she truly is, and become what she is destined
to become, in an environment of like-minded, passionate women.
Why forward-thinking families choose Strathcona
Choosing an all-girls’ school is one thing. Choosing which one is another thing altogether.
By now you will have gained a sense of Strathcona’s passion for helping girls reach their full, unique potential, to become truly unstoppable in and beyond the classroom.
You’ll also have noticed that we have a certain personality — a personal touch — that separates us from the more corporate-themed institutions you may be considering. It’s this personal approach, our belief in knowing each girl as an individual and supporting her in being her whole self in mind, body and spirit, that is unlike anything you’ll find among our contemporaries.
We’re unafraid of breaking private education stereotypes for something more meaningful.
Where other schools may be selective in their enrolments, Strathcona develops high achievement in all, commensurate with an individual’s unique blend of skills and abilities.
We are as committed to realising a girl’s dream of becoming a videogame designer or author as we are another girl’s desire to pursue medicine or civil engineering. What matters to us is that your daughter’s inner spirit has the chance to flourish, in an environment that is supportive, challenging and rewarding.
Bespoke Learning
It could be said that we shape the school to fit the girl, rather than shaping the girl to fit the school. As a contemporary and always forward thinking place of learning, Strathcona doesn’t rely on the fundamentals alone to achieve results. We empower our staff to think innovatively and craft unique teaching programs that engage and inspire students as a group, and girls as individuals.
We have smaller class sizes than the average, and our teachers work hard to develop meaningful connections with every single student. This all translates into better academic performance on the one hand, and a greater sense of belonging on the other. This sense of belonging is a powerful part of the Strathcona experience. With almost 100 years of refining this sense, we enable our girls to share in it from day one.
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Balance & Belonging
Here, mind, body and spirit take equal priority, and we strive to achieve a healthy balance between the academic and the pastoral.
With a proud history, founded on inclusiveness, respect and care, Strathcona nurtures the spiritual development of students through our Baptist heritage, a strong ethical framework and commitment to service and social justice. Our diverse community embraces many cultures, faiths and beliefs, with our shared values at the core.
To that end, our nurturing Pastoral Care program aims to bolster in each girl a robust sense of self, with the emotional intelligence to be resilient in the face of challenge, confident when the opportunity arises, and compassionate toward the plight of others.
It instils an optimistic, productive attitude, while developing team and leadership skills.
Further entrenching belonging and confidence, while building strong support networks, is our range of cross-age programs, which provide stimulating activities and challenges that older and younger students tackle together. Our girls don’t just talk to each other — they help each other. And of course our longstanding House System promotes friendly rivalry across all year levels, with annual highlights including a Debating Competition, Performing Arts Festival, Athletics and Swimming Carnivals, and a host of community engagement activities.
Equipped for Success
Strathcona is by no means a ‘big’ school (other than in the way we think, that is). But our modest footprint boasts an impressive array of facilities in support of our students’ development. These are spread across our three campuses — the Junior School and Senior School in Canterbury, and the Year 9 Tay Creggan in Hawthorn.
In 2024, Strathcona will open its purpose-built Early Years Centre, exclusively designed for students from ELC to Year 1. This innovative facility combines the significance of play in developing the foundational building blocks of education during a child’s formative years.
From ELC to Senior School, spaces have been purpose-built to suit student needs at each year level. These include state-of-the-art smart classrooms, seminar rooms, quiet study spaces, halls and galleries, kitchens, social areas, outdoor spaces (including learning spaces), art rooms, music studios and media rooms. Our redeveloped Year 7 and 8 centre connects both year levels while providing dedicated media
booths for students to record work and create podcasts.
Of particular note is the 1893 home Tay Creggan, our dedicated Year 9 school on the banks of the Yarra River. Within its heritage-listed walls students enjoy spacious classrooms, science laboratory, library, commercial kitchen and art space. Alongside the sports ground and basketball court outside, the river affords plenty of water-based activity, including canoeing, kayaking and rowing.
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Body, Mind & Spirit
Often surprising visitors with the extent of its offering, the Senior School campus amply demonstrates Strathcona’s belief in maintaining a healthy body. It is home to a large, multi-purpose synthetic oval, indoor heated 25m pool, five tennis and netball courts, gymnasium complex and a weights and training room.
Of course, the mind is also well catered for at Strathcona, not only in our curriculum, but in our libraries. Across the Wheelton Knowledge Exchange in the Senior School, the Tay Creggan Learning Lounge, and the Junior School Library, students benefit from our formidable print, audio-visual and digital collections, online databases, and flexible learning spaces with wireless network access.
When it comes to the spirit, few things uplift like the arts, and our Creative and Performing Arts Centre is the ideal take-off point. With four art rooms, multimedia lab, recording studio, music, drama and performance facilities, as well as a food technology area catering to the culinary arts, every Strathcona girl has the opportunity to express her genuine self.
Intellectually curious, emotionally intelligent, quietly confident, socially responsible — all these and more aptly describe the typical Strathcona girl. But there is no one Strathcona girl. There are as many as there are girls who have spent their time with us. Each one driven by a unique passion, which it is our role to identify, nurture and develop. It’s the very reason we say that unstoppable girls begin at Strathcona
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Moving toward an exciting future.
Time doesn’t stand still. So one of the most important qualities we can instil in our students is a preparedness for the future.
Strathcona girls learn to accept challenge, adapt to new environments, and make the most of every opportunity afforded them.
At its core, this involves inspiring a love of learning — an invaluable, lifelong attribute. Such a growth mindset enables students to frame the rapidly changing world in a positive light, highlighting the possibilities rather than the obstacles.
As they develop this quality and negotiate their way into the world, Strathcona girls can rely on these foundational life skills to progress beyond what even they thought might be possible.
“If women aren’t involved in creating the future, then their voices can’t be heard."
Dean of Teaching and Learning
Design Thinking
Design Thinking is quickly emerging as one of the most crucial and adaptable life skills a young person can have. Strathcona has customised its core principles in the form of the ELC to Year 6 program Tinker Train, an imaginary sequence of carriages representing the process involved — Understand, Identify, Create and Share. Each carriage features specific tools and experiences that students can use to shape their own thoughts and solutions when tackling an array of problems.
Using the Tinker Train process, our students embrace creative challenges that push their learning beyond knowledge acquisition into application. They create working models of the sustainable houses
of the future; invent new wearable technologies like heated hoodies; explore biomes in Minecraft; develop virtual reality games, and more.
Design Thinking principles are then used in Years 7 – 9 through our SOUL subject as well as through Digital Technology and Art and Design.
The crossover of technological and social is a powerful learning model. Coding is one of the most valued
foundations for a STEM career, and visual design, problem-solving and working as a team are all essential
to creative and critical thinking.
Tay Creggan represents a unique opportunity for Strathcona Year 9 girls to spend an important transitional year before Senior School in an exclusive environment tailored to their unique learning needs.
Not only is it a beautiful place to learn, it also affords us the opportunity to run one of our most inspirational life-skill programs, TC Envision.
Seamlessly integrated with the National Year 9 Curriculum, TC Envision as an entrepreneurial approach to providing experiences and challenges that set girls up for their senior secondary years and beyond. We explore life skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, design capability,
intellect, collaboration, communication and resilience.
But perhaps its most unique feature is our partnership with the League of Extraordinary Women, a collective of some of Melbourne’s most successful and inspirational business women.
Their mentoring and acumen help guide our girls as they develop their own business ideas, which will be fully formed by the end of the year.
As they depart Year 9 and begin their senior years, the TC Envision girls have discovered greater maturity, formed lasting connections, and honed a diverse range of life skills from teamwork, sustainability and
financial management to Duke of Edinburgh, barista skills and Adobe Illustrator.
"Envision is an authentic way to learn perseverance; to learn to keep going in the face of failure. Learning to think like an entrepreneur is building the girls resilience, along with their assertiveness and willingness to take risks"
Head of Tay Creggan
Learning Innovation
Strathcona Girls Grammar School embraces innovation in teaching, incorporating digital technologies and artificial intelligence to enhance the educational experience. The integration of these tools equips students with essential skills for the future. By incorporating digital platforms, students engage with interactive learning materials, fostering a dynamic and personalised approach to education. Artificial intelligence, employed thoughtfully, enables adaptive learning, catering to individual learning styles and pace.
Beyond technology, Strathcona places a strong emphasis on fostering curiosity and critical thinking. Students are encouraged to question, explore, and analyse information independently, cultivating a passion for learning that extends beyond the classroom.
The school’s commitment to STEM education ensures that students are not merely consumers of technology but active contributors and problem-solvers.
Moreover, the school recognises the importance of strong relationships in teaching. Our teachers at Strathcona Girls Grammar School prioritise creating a supportive and collaborative environment. These relationships ensure every student has personalised care within their learning and fosters a sense of community that enhances the overall learning experience. By combining technological innovation, STEM education, and the cultivation of strong interpersonal connections, the school is shaping well-rounded, adaptable individuals poised for success in the modern world.
Social responsibility and Global citizenship
From the very outset, Strathcona girls are taught the value of an outward perspective — that the world is a much bigger place than themselves, and it is a privilege to be in a position to help others in need. Indeed, it stems from the ‘culture of care’ that the school was founded upon almost a century ago.
Social responsibility plays a critical role in a teenage girl’s development, and throughout the year we provide a range of opportunities for students to reach out into, help and become involved in the day-to-day of the world around them. Examples include: the Quilts for Kids initiative, in which our Year 7 girls made quilts to aid the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre; the ongoing sponsorship of several children through Baptist World Aid; our partnership with Eat Up, an organisation that recruits help from students to prepare and distribute sandwiches to under-fed Melbourne schoolchildren, and; donations to Share the Dignity, which supports and aids women who are homeless or who have been victims of domestic violence. Strathcona also partners with Women’s Property Initiatives each year to support their mission of providing women with safe and secure housing.
Nurturing the immediate community provides a local perspective on the power of generosity, but our Global Links initiative introduces our girls to the possibilities that exist in every corner of the globe, including our own.
Strathcona embraces trips overseas and other outward focused learning opportunities in giving our girls a strong sense of their place in a diverse and exciting world. Whether it’s a visit to another continent, or time spent in cutting-edge local businesses, the girls display a truly unstoppable spirit in all that they undertake.
The qualities of the unstoppable girl.
Every girl is unique — and, conversely, it’s this diversity that makes us the same.
At Strathcona, we celebrate the difference. Rather than whittle a girl’s personality and ambitions so that she’ll fit into a hole of a pre-determined shape, we encourage her to carve out her own shape, and fill it to the brim with her dreams and aspirations.
Strathcona girls are instilled with an inquisitive desire to question and learn, but, beyond this, they display a ‘have a go’ attitude. This may develop quickly or slowly, depending on the nature of the girl, but it does come. Girls learn that sitting back and being a spectator in life is nowhere near as rewarding as taking part, of being in touch with your true self and pursuing your dreams. And if things don’t go according to plan, they can rely on the resilience and confidence Strathcona has helped them build to try again or seek out new avenues to fulfilment.
There’s nothing stopping you. Enrol now.
Our Locations
Early Learning Centre
34 Scott Street,
Canterbury VIC 3126
Junior School
173 Prospect Hill Road,
Canterbury VIC 3126
Middle & Senior School
34 Scott Street,
Canterbury VIC 3126
Year 9 Tay Creggan
30 Yarra Street,
Hawthorn VIC 3122
Travel to and from Strathcona
Train, tram or bus to either of Strathcona Girls Grammar campuses. Conveniently located in Melbourne’s inner-east suburbs of Canterbury and Hawthorn, Strathcona offers students easy access to both campuses.
Thank you for taking the time to read a little about what makes Strathcona Girls Grammar.
We invite you to contact us directly with any questions or comments you might have. We would be only too happy to chat or meet with you and your family. The enrolment process is straightforward, and you can begin today. Please refer to the enrolment information provided in this pack, or if you have received this prospectus by other means, contact the School and we can begin you, and your daughter’s Strathcona Journey.
Or alternatively email or call:
© Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar School ABN 75 073 413 626 CRICOS 00577C Strathcona is a Child Safe school
Statement of Strathcona’s Philosophy
- We are committed to advancing education within a Christian learning community and operating in a manner which bears witness to the Christian faith having regard to the School’s Baptist foundation.
- We are committed to offering our students the best education possible, and allowing each student to realise their full potential.
- We are committed to offering the best academic environment possible. To do this, we support each student’s learning and ensure that each student can learn in an environment free from bullying, harassment, and discrimination.
- We are committed to caring for each student’s emotional and pastoral needs. To do this, we have a pastoral care framework and provide support such as counselling services and education on resilience and mental health.
- We are committed to allowing each student to achieve in areas of their own interest. To do this, we accommodate each student’s interests, allowing them to balance curricular and extra-curricular activities, and encourage them to pursue their interests.
- We are committed to fostering leadership in all of our students. To achieve this, we have programs and activities which encourage each student to lead among their peers.
- We are committed to allowing each student to live a healthy and active lifestyle. To do this, we provide education on a healthy lifestyle, and encourage sporting and other co-curricular activities.
Strathcona Girls Grammar is a learning community committed to providing an education journey from our Early Learning Centre to Year 12. A proportion of funds raised or fees collected by the School may be used to support the operation of the Early Learning Centre.