St Kevin's College, Melbourne

History

The school was established in 1918 in East Melbourne by the Christian Brothers who set out to establish a strong tradition of high academic standards. St Kevin's was the matriculation centre for all of the Christian Brothers’ schools in Melbourne. With its early academic success, the enrolment soon outgrew its buildings in East Melbourne. In 1932, the school was moved to the corner of St George and Orrong Roads, Toorak. Property in Heyington was purchased and developed into playing fields. The Heyington Property is now the Senior School Campus, housing Years 7 to 8, and Years 10 through to year 12, in a vertical house system.

The Heyington Campus was built in 1960, notably the Kearney Building, which is visible on the approach from the Glen Waverley railway line. The Lansell Road property was opened in 1972, and that same year the Orrong road property was sold. In 1982, the K.C. Smith building was constructed for the middle school years on the Senior Campus, and in 1990 the Pavilion was opened. Since its opening, the Pavilion has flooded twice, both in 2005. Ovals one and two were completely submerged, resembling flooded school foyers in the 1970s.

The Cummins Building was refurbished in 1997, and currently houses the creative arts precinct, which includes arts, drama, music and artistic works. The McCarthy Building was opened in 1997, housing Art Studios, the Campus Library and the Administration Block. The Lansell Road property is now home to the Glendalough Campus, and in 1999 became a full primary school, housing prep to grade 6 students. Also in 1999, Year 9 students moved from the Senior Campus to a dedicated campus named Waterford in Richmond. Waterford currently resides in the former Vaucluse College FCJ site in Richmond.

In March 2006, a $16 million indoor pool, gym and sports facility, the Wilding Centre, was blessed by Cardinal George Pell and opened for the students.

In 2009 the Godfrey building was opened.

In 2010, the Boyd Egan Hall was opened at Glendalough and substantial floods filled the school's ovals and damaged the Fraser tennis courts.

In 2011, work began on a three storey 14 million dollar Science Wing, located adjacent to Heyington railway station at the end of the Kearney Building.

In 2013, the Kearney West building was officially opened. The building contains brand new science labs, chemistry labs and woodwork rooms, which are used for senior classes.

In 2014, the McMahon Music Centre was opened at Glendalough.

Campuses

St Kevin's College has four campuses:

Curriculum

St Kevin's College offers its Years 11 and 12 students the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), the main assessment program which ranks the students in the state.

The class of 2009 have been highest-performing academic group in the history of the modern VCE for St Kevin's College, making St Kevin's in 2009 the top-performing, non-selective, all boys, Catholic and Associated Public Schools of Victoria member school, with 33 per cent of study scores at 40 or over, and 14 perfect scores were achieved across 10 subjects.

Co-curriculum

As part of upholding the value of "fullness of life" of the College, a number of initiatives are conducted:

Debating and public speaking

St Kevin's competes in the Debaters Association of Victoria Schools competition, and the Heyington Campus is the host venue for the Toorak regional competition. Five debates are held each year, and St Kevin's teams debate against other Melbourne schools on various current interest topics. St Kevin's participates in a range of other debating and public speaking tournaments, including those organised by Rotary, the RSL, UNYA and as of 2011, the WIDPSC, with one student competing representing Australia, and recording 8th place.

Sport

St Kevin's College is a member of the Associated Public Schools of Victoria, the College teams take part in a competition providing a wide range of sports at different levels of achievement. In 2009 the College won the Soccer, Australian Rules Football and Rugby premierships – a feat that has never been achieved before in APS sporting history.

Theatre and drama

St Kevin's has a theatre department and each year produces a wide range of Plays, Musicals and Operas. A relationship between several different girls' schools has been established to enhance the co-curricular dramatic arts program.

Aviation

St Kevin's College offers an aviation program to its students, and is the only secondary school in Australia to offer students the opportunity to earn a pilot's licence by the time they graduate. The program has been commended by aviators and industry experts such as the late Nancy Bird Walton, AO, OBE, DStJ

Coat of arms, crest and motto

The current school crest was adopted by Br Kearney in 1933. The school crest bears:

The school's motto is, in Latin, 'Omnia Pro Deo' meaning 'All for God' or transliterated means 'All things for God'. This is taken from a letter of St Paul.

Relationship with other schools

St. Kevin's College, Toorak has a long-standing tradition with Loreto Mandeville Hall with whom it established an ELC Centre, St. Peter's. The College also has a strong establishment with fellow independent schools Korowa Anglican Girls' School, Sacré Cœur School, Genazzano FCJ College and St. Catherine's School.

Politics, public service and the law

Sport

Media, entertainment and the arts

Clergy