McKinnon Secondary College is a public secondary school located in the Melbourne suburb of McKinnon. The school[1] was ranked 44th in Victoria in terms of percentage of study scores of 40 or above in 2023, making it the highest-ranked non-selective public school.[2] In 2022, the school opened a second campus in Bentleigh East for Year 8 and Year 9 students. This new campus was officially dubbed the East Campus, and the original campus dubbed the McKinnon Road Campus. Michael Kan is the incumbent principal, taking over from Pitsa Binnion since her retirement at the end of 2022.[3][4][5]
McKinnon Secondary College is a coeducational secondary school, serving years 7–12, is located in McKinnon, Melbourne Southern Suburbs & Western Port region of Victoria. It is one of the government schools in the McKinnon area. Mckinnon Secondary College offers VET and VCAL courses. The uniform is compulsory and enforced.[citation needed]
While the school previously had several computer labs with desktop computers running Windows and macOS, the majority of them were repurposed following the introduction of the school's Chromebook program, under which all students in the school are equipped with individual laptops running ChromeOS.[8]
McKinnon Secondary College is consistently in the top non-selectivegovernment schools in Victoria for the last decade, and in 2003 was the state system's second top non-selective-entry VCE school.[9] In 2011 it was ranked 62nd in the state out of all schools.[10] McKinnon Secondary College was ranked eighth out of all state secondary schools in Victoria based on VCE results in 2018.[11]
McKinnon Secondary has many instrumental groups that cater for people of different ability, instrument and music style preferences.
The colleges music ensembles include:
Years 7 and 8 band
Years 7 and 8 Strings
Symphonic wind band
Ovenden Band
Intermediate Stage Band
Senior Stage Band
Orchestra
Wind quintet
Saxophone Ensemble
String quartet
Percussion ensemble
Choir
Senior singers
The music faculty at McKinnon holds performances such as the Spring and junior concerts. An event considered important in the school calendar is the Winter Concert, held annually at Robert Blackwood Hall, in Monash University.[12] Every year, the college holds a House Music Festival, in which each house, Chisholm (blue), Monash (green), Gilmore (red) and Flynn (yellow), compete in three categories; instrumental, dancing and choral.[13]
It is compulsory for students in years 7 and 8 to learn a language. The college also hosts the Victorian School of Languages, which allows students to learn a language out of school in their own time as a subject for VCE. The VSL offers both Hebrew and Russian. This enables McKinnon students to learn another language, or their native language, as part of their VCE. Year 10 students have the opportunity to go on exchange trips to either GermanyorNew Caledonia (France) and have an exchange student live with them for a period of time. Since 2022, Mckinnon has added the opportunity to learn Spanish, with two dedicated teachers.[citation needed]
The college offers an enhanced maths and science programme for selected students called ELMS. Students can enrol in Maths ELMS in Year 7, and can enrol in Science ELMS from Year 8. The programme runs until year 9, then after all Maths ELMS students are enrolled into Year 11 Mathematical Methods.[18] In Year 10, students can apply to be enrolled in Unit 1/2 VCE subjects, and subsequently, these students will continue to Unit 3/4 subjects in Year 11.[citation needed]
McKinnon Secondary holds sports carnivals throughout the year where students compete for their houses; Chisholm, Monash, Gilmore and Flynn (blue, green, red and yellow, respectively). The three annual carnivals are swimming, athletics and cross-country. The best students in these competitions go on to represent McKinnon at inter-school sporting events.[citation needed]
Students are required to wear a uniform. The uniform policy is enforced by teachers. The colours of the uniform are blue, grey and white. There are two types of uniform; sport uniform and regular uniform. Sport uniform can only be worn on days when students have practical PE lessons, or interschool sport.[citation needed]
The regular summer uniform consists of a neck tie, button-up shirt and shorts/trousers for boys, and a dress for girls. During the winter, girls wear neck-ties and shirts as well, and can choose between a skirt or trousers. Additional accessories include a blazer, a jumper and a scarf. Students must wear black leather lace-up shoes while in regular uniform. During Term 2 and 3, blazers must be worn to and from school each day when not wearing sport uniform.[citation needed]
