Excellence Awardees for Primary School of the Year (Non-Government) and Innovative Learning Design in the 2024 Australian Education Awards!
St Michael’s is proud to be a progressive, coeducational Kindergarten to Year 12 School.
Located on one site, our Kindergarten to Year 12 structure provides flexibility for the design of enriching learning experiences. The formal and informal contact and interaction between junior and senior students fosters peer-to-peer relationships, and students across all ages find meaningful opportunities to collaborate.
This all starts in our Junior School. Our students’ time in the Junior School provides a strong foundation for a love of learning and a capacity to develop new skills that will prepare them for every stage of their education and life beyond School.
St Michael’s Grammar School Early Learning Centre (ELC), located in Margaret Thomas House is an integral part of the School. The 3YO Kindergarten and Pre-Prep programs are the beginning of a continuous learning journey, taking a child through to Year 12. To learn more about St Michael’s Early Learning Centre, please click here.
As children move into their first years of formal schooling in Prep, we support them to develop a strong sense of identity. At the lower primary years, the focus on the fundamentals of Literacy and Numeracy allows our students to be skilled researchers, competent and confident mathematicians and successful communicators. Our Signature Programs that support Mathematical and Literacy growth are sequential, evidence-based programs that are taught explicitly with the developmental stage of our learners in mind. We focus on building a strong sense of wellbeing and support children to become effective collaborators.
In the middle primary years, we extend on these skills and apply them to a broader context – our local community. Our Signature Programs enable children to develop the dispositions and competencies to approach increasingly complex problems and apply critical thinking to identify, analyse and apply solutions.
We take advantage of being an urban school, located in the dynamic hub of St Kilda, where we access the local arts community, the bayside offerings and the beautiful gardens close by. We have formed community partnerships that allow us to offer experiential learning opportunities through our Signature Programs.
Our Year 3 students learn with experts from Earthcare and Parks Victoria, and engage in research on the St Kilda Little Penguins. With a focus on biodiversity, environmental science and collaboration on local issues, our students apply their understanding by being active citizens, effecting change in their local community. Year 4 students participate in the Tomorrow’s Leaders for Sustainability Program, in partnership with the St Kilda Botanical Gardens Eco Centre.
In Years 5 and 6, the character qualities we nurture through our Entrepreneurship and Leadership Programs support our students to manage in more complex environments. Amid a rapidly changing world, children use persistence, agility, resilience and curiosity to investigate local and global challenges, and they extend their Service Leadership skills. They collaborate to problem solve and appreciate failure is not fatal.
Our Centre for Inquiry has been designed with inquiry principles in mind, where students can research in specially designed spaces that ignite curiosity and allow for research, prototyping, problem solving and reflection in both indoor and outdoor spaces.
The experiential learning children engage in throughout their time in the Junior School helps to develop a confident, forthright graduate who is ready for the next chapter of their learning journey. Creative, inquiring minds who are equipped to learn with, from and for the world.
We use the Victorian Curriculum and reference the Early Years Learning Framework. Our diverse curriculum includes:
In addition, we offer a range of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) programs including Digital Technologies and Literacies and basic programming concepts. STEAM is integrated into our Transdisciplinary units of inquiry, so students make meaningful links, and are taught by a specialist staff member, along with the year level teacher.
Please click here to read more about our K-6 curriculum.
St Michael’s clubs are an integral and complementary part of the educational process. We provide students with the opportunity to discover new interests and build positive relationships with others.
The current coordinated activities include Makerspace, Kitchen Garden, Robotics, Art, French, Hip Hop, COSMOS (Science), Book Club, Mad About, Public Speaking, Chess and Environmental Defenders. Note: some clubs are available to certain year levels only.
View our Co-Curricular calendar below, which shows the diversity of opportunities available to students from Kindergarten to Year 12.
Please click here for the P-6 Co-Curricular Calendar.
St Michael’s offers Before School Care, After School Care and Holiday Programs for students from our ELC through to Year 6. The Program is run and managed by TeamKids. TeamKids has a proven track record of delivering exceptional OSHC services, ensuring that your child is in safe and capable hands. By collaborating with TeamKids, we aim to enhance the quality, variety, and accessibility of our OSHC program. We believe that their professional approach, specialised resources, and extensive experience in providing exceptional care will bring significant benefits to our students and families.
To learn more about the OSHC services offered by St Michael’s for Prep to Year 6, please click here. For more information on the ELC program, please click here.
St Michael’s Grammar School offers programs that are approved for Child Care Subsidy (CCS) . These services are Before School Care, After School Care, Holiday Program and our Kindergarten. Families may choose to apply to Centrelink to determine their level of CCS. Accessing the CCS is made on the parent’s initiative.
For information on CCS application, assessment, payments and ongoing parent responsibilities, please visit a Centrelink office.
The Department of Human Services website also provides helpful information for families.