Kelvin Grove State College (KGSC) was
formed, officially, at the start of 2002, from the merger of the previous
Kelvin Grove State and Kelvin Grove State High Schools. Education Queensland
has a history of, in different decades, emphasising different sections of its portfolio.
Nowadays, the emphasis is very much on Literacy and Numeracy, through NAPLAN
testing and other initiatives. In the 1980s, with the introduction of
Commonwealth Anti-Discrimination Laws, various Aboriginal equality and land
rights laws, etc., one of EQ’s foci was Social Justice. In fact, in the 1990s,
Kelvin Grove State High School even had a Head of Department (Social Justice).
In the 1990s, when the rapid growth of independent schooling became an
important issue, a focus of Education Queensland was Client Service, better
meeting the needs of students and their families. Many in Education Queensland
were considering whether the “one size- fits-all” model of State schooling
(comprehensive, coeducational, primary schools to Year 7 and high schools from
Year 7 to Year 12) provided enough variety of options for State school
families, especially in urban areas. These people looked with some envy at the
private system, where variety flourished: single gender schools, selective
schools (for brighter students and for vocational students), traditional
primary and high schools but also P-12 colleges and a variety in-between, and
so on. There was considerable pressure, as a government system, to add variety
and choice to the State schooling options available.
Concurrently, in the late 1990s, the State
government put aside a very large sum of money for facilities’ improvement and
renovation in State secondary schools, a program named Secondary School
Renewal. The Kelvin Grove schools’ facilities were very much original and
seriously outdated, the only work that had been done for many years was the
building of two dance studios for the Queensland Dance School of Excellence and
the building-in under the Science block to create two industrial kitchens for
Home Economics and Catering students. Submissions were called from schools to
access Secondary School Renewal funding.
Putting these two initiatives together,
clearly schools that could provide a submission that enhanced client service
were more likely to access significant funding from the Secondary School
Renewal program. The then principals of the primary school (Judy Thompson) and
the high school (myself), along with the EQ representative from District Office
(Donna George), decided to put in a submission based on the merger of the
primary and high schools at Kelvin Grove to form a P-12 college, if the
respective school communities agreed. The consultation processes were indeed
long and arduous, with not everyone agreeing that a merger was necessarily a
good thing, but in the end (with stoic and intelligent leadership of their
communities by the Presidents of the two P&Cs, Peter Bryant at the high
school, and Jo Price at the primary school, along with many other committed
parents) a merger was proposed and agreed by the two communities.
The benefits of a P-12 college at Kelvin
Grove, as put to the community, included:
significant
facilities’ upgrades and renovation through Secondary School Renewal;
the
creation of a P-12 college where all the students of a family could attend
together, removing the stressful ‘break’ of schools between primary and
secondary schooling;
a P-12
college with continuity of curriculum, behaviour management models and
expectations, again avoiding the discontinuity in changing schools between
primary and high schools;
access by
primary pupils to far greater human and physical resources, such as
Science laboratories, kitchens, performing arts studios, an instrumental
music program, and so on;
schooling
in a P-12 environment appropriate to age development, with a Junior School
for children (Principal, Judy Thompson), and a Middle School for
adolescents (Principal, Majella Frith) and a Senior School for young
adults (Principal, Trina Beard); and, of course
the
creation of greater ‘choice’ for Brisbane State school families in the
style of State schooling their children become involved in; and
other
reasons quite numerous.
With the decisions of the two schools to
support the merger, our Secondary School Renewal submission was also successful,
for one of the largest amounts given to any school at the time. The renewal
program provided the college with:
a new
Performing Arts block, with two Dance studios, two Drama studios, a
computer laboratory, storage, staff-room, and so on;
a new
Visual Arts block, with three Art classrooms, an Art computer room of
Macs, and a staffroom;
a Health
& Physical Education centre near the oval, with three HPE classrooms,
a staffroom, a serving centre and storage, as well as completion of the
enclosure of the Gymnasium;
a Social
Sciences/Languages centre of five classrooms, through the enclosure of the
ground floor of E-Block; and
complete
renovation of the previously small and inadequate classrooms in what is
now the Middle School blocks, with a computer pod for every two adjacent
classrooms - while at the same time The Enrichment Centre for students
with disabilities consisting of two classrooms, a staffroom, a kitchenette
and storage was put onto the college grounds; and
the Year 6
and 7 classes were included in the Middle School, leaving classroom space
in the Junior School so that more pupils could, in the long term, be
enrolled in Years Prep to 5.
In becoming a P-12 college, Kelvin Grove
joined, and led, other South-East Queensland mergers, that resulted in the
likes of Camp Hill State College, Earnshaw State College, Stretton State
College, Kawana Waters State College, and other purpose-built P-12 colleges
such as Varsity Lakes College, Chancellor State College and North Lakes State
College. [Eventually, greater variety in State Schooling options was also
provided by the formation of State schools for gifted students (the Academies
at Toowong, Kelvin Grove and the Gold Coast), for vocational students
(Commonweathfunded, such as the Technology College at Redcliffe), and special
purpose State schools, such as Aviation High at Hendra. While the creation of
single-gender State schools was also a matter of discussion at this time,
especially the possibility of a Brisbane State high school for girls, this did not
eventuate.)
I believe the merger, and the resultant
Kelvin Grove State College, has been, while not without its significant
challenges, a resounding success. While there are many indicators of this,
perhaps the most telling is the rapid enrolment increase the college has
undergone since the merger. The growth in student enrolment from about 1300
total in 2001 to over 2800 today is surely indicative of a community need being
met for the option of P-12 schooling in inner-Brisbane, and of the extremely
high education standard being offered in the college. Thank you for this
opportunity to outline the history of the formation of Kelvin Grove State
College. I again thank everyone involved in supporting the development of this
great school, and wish it the best into the future under its current Executive
Principal, Joel Buchholz.