Over 50 percent of students attending Kent Street live in neighbouring or other school districts. This is largely due to Kent Street's specialist programs (aeronautics, cricket, fashion & design, and Centre of Resources Excellence (CoRE)).[1][2][3]
The Western Australian Parliament received many proposals for a high school to situated south of the river through the 1920s but a lack of funds mostly due to the depression meant that the school did not eventuate. In 1932 a survey was conducted finding that 410 post primary age children were living in the South Perth and Victoria Park areas. Construction of the first building commenced in 1939 and the school commenced operations known as Kent Street Central School in 1940 with 354 students.
The buildings of the school are listed on the Western Australia Heritage Register and described as a complex of Inter-war Free Classical style brick and tile buildings and grounds.[4]
School teams have entered Australian 5 Highs Cricket carnival, winning at Brisbane 1994, and at Melbourne 2000 and 2005. The school hosted the carnival in 1996, 2001 and 2006.[5]
The School is based primarily on its 4-hectare (10-acre) campus on Kent Street in East Victoria Park. The campus of the school is divided into three levels, because of its sloping hill it was positioned on. The school has no breaking in age groups except for a Canteen Quad for lower-school students and an Upper School Quad for upper school students.
The school began to offer a course in aviation to Year 11 students in 1979. The first class was composed of 27 students. In 1988 the course was opened for lower school students to enrol in. Fundraising was required to purchase some of the equipment required and Joan Terry, wife of the late Paul Terry, donated an aircraft hangar in 1994. By 2000 the school had developed a partnership with Edith Cowan University to promote aviation education in Western Australia. The aviation course was one of the courses trialled in the Courses of Study roll-out in 2004 and became a TEE (now ATAR) equivalent course.[6]
In 2008, the school joined a partnership with Skywest Airlines (now a subsidy of Virgin Australia), a Western Australian-based regional airline. With this partnership, aviation students can now undertake work experience and Structured Workplace Learning (SWL) at Skywest Airlines, assisting Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers (LAME's) to undertake maintenance on Fokker 50 and Fokker 100 jet aircraft. In addition, upper school aviation students are able to undertake return flights with Virgin Australia pilots. Students work with the pilots to determine the weight and balance of the aircraft, decipher complex meteorological data and apply navigation principles relevant to these sophisticated jet aircraft.[7]
The Rotary Residential College is on land leased from Kent Street Senior High School. The idea of the college was generated by the constant requests to metropolitan Rotary clubs for accommodation for high school students wanting to study special courses only provided at city based high schools. With the help of Federal, State and Local Governments, the corporate sector and guided by some Individual Rotary Clubs, this project is now a reality and has been operating since 1991.
Over the past 29 years[which?] some 450 boarders have availed themselves of the accommodation and they have come from nearly 100 country towns.[citation needed]
Media related to Kent Street Senior High School at Wikimedia Commons
