Meredith Eddington is the new Alumni Manager at Shenton College.  Meredith has been appointed to help alumni from Hollywood SHS, Swanbourne SHS and Shenton College and one of the key areas she is looking to support is school reunions. If any alumni year group wishes to hold a reunion, Meredith is here to help organise a venue, catering and will help you to source and find memorabilia from your time at school.

For a reunion to work well people from that year need to gather their fellow alums together – find them & encourage them to attend, usually later in the year (October to December). This gives people living interstate & even overseas time to plan a trip home.

Meredith will also play a role in helping the College in the process of setting up a database to further establish a Shenton community and alumni will be an important part of this group.  As we collect information it will be recorded in the graduating year, the Class of 1970 or 1980, etc. and made available to use for school reunions and other events. More information about the database soon.

Meredith will also play a key role in organising our celebrations this year as Shenton College turns 20. A 20^th Year Celebration Cocktail Party is being held later in the year outside on our new landscaped terracing in front of Borneo house. More information on this event soon.

Our thanks go to our College P&C for their support of this valuable initiative.

Please email Meredith at meredith.eddington@education.wa.edu.au if you wish to discuss anything alumni and/or events.

Dear Shenton College Community

The Shenton College Board is very pleased to report that our College has secured an outstanding external review of its performance. A copy of the review report is attached.

Each Western Australian public school is reviewed every 3 years by the Department of Education, and we were extremely pleased to receive the report from Brett Hunt, the Public School Review Director, at our board meeting on Monday evening.

Brett could not have been more complimentary of the standards achieved by Shenton College across all 6 of the measured domains. He was eager to ensure that we clearly understood how our College sets an impressive benchmark for public schooling in our State. Particularly pleasing for the Board were his observations that:

• Having assessed the College on 3 separate occasions, he considers that the standards of excellence have become culturally embedded throughout the staff and student bodies
• High level leadership and alignment to a clear moral purpose is evident throughout all levels of the leadership hierarchy and
• The assessment demonstrated that Shenton’s emphasis on authenticity (delivering on what is said to be important), alignment (between strategy and operational performance) and accountability (regular measurement and transparency) is paying ongoing dividends in terms of student outcomes.

The letter confirming the completion of the review from Stephen Baxter, the Deputy Director General, Schools, confirmed this theme:

The high levels of trust in the college and its leadership, founded on the authentic and consistent commitment to ‘much more than marks – learning for life’ ethos is to be commended. The strategic intent of the college is clear and enhanced by the unified purpose of leaders in a culture of continuous improvement.

The rating of “effective” is the highest rating available and provides comfort to the entire Shenton College community that our College is delivering on its commitments.

On behalf of the Board, I wish to thank Michael Morgan and the entire leadership and staff for their outstanding commitment, energy and collaboration in securing this outcome. The report is a credit to each of you, and validates that you have created a learning environment in which students are “safe to pursue their interests, both academically and creatively, in an orderly and inclusive environment.”

Congratulations all.

Mal Cooke

Shenton College Board Chair

4 December 2019

Recently our school website was nominated as a finalist in the Education Website section of the inaugural Australian Access Awards. Our site has a number of best practice accessibility features built into it to ensure that what is often people’s first point of contact with the school is inclusive for all members of our community.

It gives us great pleasure to announce that last week, not only did we win the Education Website award, but we also went on to take out the national award for Accessible Website of the Year.

Jasmine Pearson is the first Shenton College student to win a Tuckwell Scholarship. This prestigious award, valued at $125,000, will enable her to study for up to five years full time at the Australian National University in Canberra.

There were only three students in WA included in the national selection of 25 Tuckwell Scholarship winners. The Tuckwell Scholarship program, established seven years ago, is renowned for its generosity, allowing students to fully focus on their studies rather than trying to make ends meet. It is regarded as the pinnacle of university scholarships in Australia.

Jasmine said the scholarship would enable her to bring to fruition her dream of moving east to study, and she plans to pursue studies in Health Science and Anthropology with a view to becoming involved in public health, particularly Indigenous health.

Eight Shenton College students have started their journey to university while still at school through the Curtin University Innovative Schools Scholars Program.

Enrolled in units this semester from creative writing to epidemiology, fine art to programming, the students have extended their learning in their chosen fields.

The staff at Curtin University welcomed our students and supported their enrolment at the Curtin Connect Student Hub at a special orientation event. Students met their professors, classmates and course advisers and took a tour of the campus.

The students, in Years 10 & 11, attend classes either on campus or online, participate in lectures and discussions, and complete all the assessment and learning requirements of the first year units they are studying. The students say the work is challenging and they enjoy the extension. The advice they give is that the key to managing university is to be organised and read ahead.

The Curtin Innovative Schools Scholars Program is a pilot program for 2019, offered to Shenton College through the Innovative Schools Consortium Partnership with the university.

Ben Wyatt, the State Treasurer, visited Shenton College in the last week of Term 2 to talk to Senior School students about the importance of NAIDOC Week. Celebrations are held across Australia in July to acknowledge the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This year the theme was Voice. Treaty. Truth: key elements to the reforms set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. These reforms represent the unified position of First Nations Australians. Initially to have a First Nations Voice to Parliament enshrined in the Constitution and second, a Makarrata Commission to supervise treaty processes and truth-telling.

For generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have looked for significant and lasting change. The 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart built on generations of consultation and discussions among Indigenous people.

National NAIDOC Co-Chair John Paul Janke believes 2019 is a unique opportunity to hear this nation’s Indigenous voice. This year is the UN’s International Year of Indigenous Languages.

It is with great pleasure that I present to parents, staff and students the Shenton College Annual Report for 2017. Shenton College had a sound year in 2017 with strong academic and non-academic success. Our on-going focus on the ‘whole child’ resulted in a great many opportunities beyond the classroom that our students both enjoyed and more often than not, excelled in.
2017 was a year of transition and the College’s strong performance is a testimony to its structures, collaboration, depth and breadth.

Annual Report 2017