Aquinas College, Melbourne

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Aquinas College
AquinasRingwoodLogo.png
Address
46 Great Ryrie Street

Ringwood
,
Victoria
3134

Australia
Coordinates37°49′23″S 145°14′08″E / 37.82306°S 145.23556°E / -37.82306; 145.23556Coordinates: 37°49′23″S 145°14′08″E / 37.82306°S 145.23556°E / -37.82306; 145.23556
Information
TypeIndependent, co-educational
MottoLatin: Illuminare et Ardere
("To light up and be on fire")
DenominationRoman Catholic
Established1961
FounderParish priests
PrincipalDarren Atkinson
Staff220+
Years7–12
GenderCo-educational
Enrolment1700+
Colour(s)  Red (Rice)
  Gold (MacKillop)
  Green (Dominic)
AccreditationCouncil of International Schools (CIS)
NewspaperThe Lighthouse
AffiliationEastern Independent Schools of Melbourne, CIASA, CRICOS, CIS
Websiteaquinas.vic.edu.au

Aquinas College is an Australian co-educational Roman Catholic secondary school in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood. It is a regional college of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, founded in 1961 to provide secondary education to Catholics residing in the Maroondah Deanery.

History[]

Aquinas Boys’ College was established on 8 February 1961. Administered by the Christian Brothers at the request of the founding parish priests, opening the doors to 130 boys in Forms 1 and 2.

Aquinas Girls' College became a reality in February 1967 with different orders of religious sisters supporting the college. During the second week of February they welcomed 84 girls into Form 1. As the numbers were diminishing in the religious orders, it became necessary for the sisters to withdraw their services at the end of 1978.

At the beginning of 1979 the boys and girls colleges amalgamated and became known as Aquinas College under lay administration. It incorporated the structure of three sub-schools; junior girls and boys (Years 7-10) and senior co-educational (Years 11-12) with an overall student population of approximately 1400 at the time.

Teaching and learning[]

Students in the senior years choose from a variety of subjects within the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). Those interested in exploring more vocational pathways can undertake the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) and pair that with the range of Vocational Education and Training (VET) certificates available.


Grounds, buildings and facilities[]

The college is situated approximately 25 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne and sits on 30 acres of land in its own green belt with native vegetation and sports areas surrounding it on three sides. The campus of Aquinas College consists of seven building blocks. These are: the Senior Years Building, the Year 9 building (the original school building), the Dominic Arts & Media Centre (including the Aquinas Resource Centre), the Staff and Technology Centre, the Gymnasium and Mahon Theatre, the Middle Years Learning Centre and the MacKillop Chapel.[1]

The Senior Years Building contains the Year 12 Wing, social space and study facilities, as well as science labs, classrooms and computer facilities. The second floor is devoted to the Wurundjeri Trade Training Centre (WTTC), a purpose build kitchen and hospitality training centre use for VCE and VET subjects, as well as the Year 9 Cafe N9ne program.

The Middle Years Learning Centre was opened in 2014. The building serves Year 7 and 8 students and includes 18 classrooms, a 150-seatl lecture theatre, a multipurpose heated staircase capable for team assemblies and several outdoor learning areas (including two upstairs balconies).

The Technology Centre, houses a fully operational Design & Technology workshop on the ground level and a Systems Technology & Hydraulics room on the second level. In addition, the school's grounds include tennis courts, three ovals for cricket and various codes of football and basketball courts for sporting purposes.

Extracurricular activities[]

Sport[]

Aquinas is a member of the Eastern Independent Schools of Melbourne (EISM).

EISM premierships[]

Aquinas has won the following EISM senior premierships.[2][3]

Combined:

  • Athletics (17) - 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008
  • Cross Country (10) - 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008
  • Swimming - 1999

Boys:

  • Athletics (15) - 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2017
  • Basketball (11) - 1990, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
  • Cricket (17) - 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1983, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2017, 2020
  • Cricket T20 - 2021
  • Cross Country (12) - 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
  • Football (13) - 1969, 1974, 1975, 1990, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
  • Golf (2) - 2002, 2008
  • Hockey (2) - 2000, 2020
  • Indoor Soccer (3) - 2002, 2006, 2007
  • Soccer (3) - 1971, 2005, 2016
  • Softball (3) - 2006, 2019, 2020
  • Swimming (3) - 1968, 1971, 1972
  • Table Tennis (2) - 1990, 2018
  • Tennis (8) - 1972, 1995, 1996, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2018
  • Touch Rugby (3) - 2006, 2007, 2008
  • Volleyball - 2019

Girls:

  • Athletics (8) - 1972, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2009
  • Basketball (14) - 1985, 1990, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021
  • Cricket (3) - 1999, 2006, 2007
  • Cross Country (12) - 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988, 1989, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008
  • Soccer - 2021
  • Softball (4) - 2003, 2004, 2012, 2016
  • Swimming - 1999
  • Tennis (7) - 1988, 1992, 2002, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2020
  • Ultimate Frisbee (4) - 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020
  • Volleyball (6) - 1984, 1985, 1988, 2007, 2014, 2020

Alumni[]

See also[]


References[]

  1. ^ [1]. Aquinas College Ringwood
  2. ^ "EISM". www.eism.org. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  3. ^ "EISM". www.eism.org. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
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