Ballarat Clarendon celebrates year of achievement

It has been an extraordinary 12 months of accolades for this regional boarding school, located in a city that has gained a reputation for educational excellence.

Every opportunity: Ballarat Clarendon is known for academics, but also offers plenty of music, drama and sport.

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WHAT a year it has been for Ballarat Clarendon College.

From stellar VCE results to NAPLAN success and improvement, the independent coeducational school’s achievements in the past 12 months have been noteworthy to say the least.

In December, Clarendon’s median VCE study score placed it top of the statewide list of all schools in Victoria.

Then in March, it emerged as the leading regional school in both primary and secondary NAPLAN results.

Principal David Shepherd said he was proud of the results, but even more excited by the fact the students were all progressing.

“The thing that is most pleasing is to see that the longer the kids are with us, the more progress they make,” he said. “We are a school where every single interaction is about learning.

“We know we are high-performing. For us, we have been identified as one of the few schools that is also making high progress as the students go along.”

Compared to all schools across the state, including Melbourne campuses, Clarendon Year 7 and Year 9 students had the third-highest average NAPLAN score – 634.7 – outperformed by only Presbyterian Ladies’ College and Fintona Girls’ School. In the list of all Victorian primary schools, Clarendon’s average score of 539.6 placed it ninth.

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These results were off the back of Clarendon being named 2019 Secondary School of the Year (non-government) in the Australian Education Awards last August.

Mr Shepherd said the accolades were a testament to both the students’ and staff’s hard work.

“It’s fantastic for Ballarat and it’s fantastic that our regional and rural students can achieve high quality educational outcomes,” he said.

“There’s no substitute for hard, smart work and we certainly have a culture of that. Our kids are encouraged and supported to make the most of every opportunity – in musicals, on the footy field, in debating or on the track.

“We’ve got happy, engaged students doing lots and that really does help produce outcomes that they can be proud of.”