St Michael’s is the private school of choice for Melbourne families that value Dignity, Respect, Care and Compassion, and want their children to be safe, nurtured and challenged as individuals.
We are an inclusive co-educational school community offering a single-campus model, state-of-the-art facilities, expert teachers, and broad-ranging, future-focussed learning and development programs that support each student to maximise their potential by developing their talents and encouraging their passions. Each student is equipped with the knowledge, attributes and confidence to pursue a meaningful future.
We have been perfecting our leadership of co-educational learning communities for almost 50 years, with diversity and inclusion evident in our people, programs, policies and culture.
Our broad-ranging educational offering, both curricular and co-curricular, and our emphasis on contributing citizenship empowers our students to make a difference in the world.
Originally a School for girls, St Michael’s became coeducational in the 1970s. We have been perfecting our delivery of coeducation ever since.
Today, we aim for gender balance in each of our cohorts so that St Michael’s students experience genuine coeducation and the multitude of benefits realised when all genders are learning and developing their values, together.
Our successful track-record as leaders in the delivery of coeducation is evidenced by our consistently high VCE results, with gender-balance reflected in our top-performers, and 100% of students receiving their 1st preferences for university entry. Read more about our VCE Results here.
In keeping with our emphasis on developing student voice and agency, we were one of the first schools in Victoria to remove gender-based uniform requirements, based on the recommendations of students.
As part of our commitment to both authentic coeducation and child safety as a Victorian Respectful Relationships Lead School, St Michael’s has been contributing to best-practice in ‘healthy relationships’ for many years. Through our ongoing commitment to child safety, we are dedicated to providing the necessary resources for staff, students and families to maintain our child-safe culture.
Embedded in the Curriculum from the early years through to Year 12 and with a range of extra-curricular programs throughout the year, all students undertake age-appropriate learning focussed on growing their self-awareness and ability to navigate personal relationships.
As students mature into the Senior years, they are supported by dedicated pastoral and community service staff to actively explore issues such Gender-Based Violence and LGBTQI+ rights – all in a spirit of respectful debate.
Many schools are known for being good at one thing: whether that be a particular sport or academic field. At St Michael’s, our goal is to have the right extension opportunities for every individual student – whether it be in STEM, Humanities, the Arts, Sport or Culture – or all of the above.
This is reflected in the diverse achievements of Old Michaelians – from Hollywood film directors to AFLW stars, playwrights, businesspeople, scientists, doctors and CEOs of large-scale not-for-profits.
To achieve this, we work collaboratively with students to understand their individual interests and needs for extension, and carefully plan our resourcing to be able to offer an exceptionally wide range of learning and extra-curricular opportunities.
We know that leaders of the future will be those with the ability to think creatively, and critically.
That’s why at St Michael’s, we are passionate about providing students with a diverse range of learning experiences within and beyond the classroom, with a strong focus on developing the core competencies of:
We achieve this through:
In addition to delivering all core subjects of the Victorian Curriculum, we offer over 35 elective subjects at Senior School level, with a diverse range of options – from Software Development, to Chinese Language, Theatre Studies and Music Performance.
Alongside a rich co-curricular program including Sport, Music, Chess Club and more, our Extended Tuition Program is available Monday-Friday in the mornings and evenings and offers a wide range of programs for individual student interests, such as Robotics, Soccer, Yoga, Tennis, Entrepreneurship and Arts and Craft.
Our Experiential Learning Faculty’s innovative programs are offered from Prep to Year 12 and fuse the curriculum with personal development and once-in-a-lifetime experiences in some of the most naturally and culturally rich places on earth. There are local, interstate and international programs available to students based on year level and subject, such as the Biology Excursion to the Great Barrier Reef for Year 10s and the ‘Penguin Squad’ Signature for Year 3s which immerses them in researching the Penguin colony on Port Phillip Bay.
Our ability to deliver a well-rounded education is enhanced by the exceptional teaching talent that we source, with many of our educators possessing industry connections and actively contributing to professional fields such as the Arts, Elite Sport and Technology in their lives outside of work.
While our students continue to achieve excellent results in the VCE, our goal is to remain ahead of the game as we challenge the ATAR as the sole definition of educational success for young people.
Our research partnership with The University of Melbourne’s New Metrics team seeks to uncover a more dynamic way to measure students’ progress, taking into account the fact that leadership in a tech-dominated future will require much more than ‘specialist knowledge’, as the division of work between humans and machines becomes increasingly ambiguous.
Parallel to Standardised Testing and the VCE, we are embedding additional frameworks for assessing student progress that focus on the abovementioned competencies.
As a one-campus school of 1200 students from Kindergarten to Year 12, we know who our students are and we nurture them as individuals.
The strength of our community, made up of students, staff, parents, alumni and educational partners enables our School’s ‘wellbeing-first’ approach – which sees many families choose us in favour of schools where one-dimensional academic performance markers are given greater emphasis than students’ happiness and wellbeing.
Wellbeing and Inclusion are more than buzzwords to us; they are an integral part of our culture, and writ large in our Teaching, Learning and Caring Framework which guides the approach to learning at our School.
Known for our inclusive culture, St Michael’s is committed to modelling Contributing Citizenship and breaking down barriers between our School and the broader Melbourne community.
Rather than being a place of exclusivity, we want our students to understand their responsibilities as Michaelians, and to be given the frameworks and encouragement to seek purpose in their studies and lives, remaining curious about and open to difference.
We have a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and discrimination and we are committed to courageous decision-making and considered conflict resolution.
We do not shy away from problems when they arise – whether it be a social, emotional or learning challenge. Our goal is always to restore harmony, improve supports for the affected individual/s, and to stand by our policies and values where internal resolutions cannot be achieved. Learn about our approach to Student Safety and Wellbeing here.
Our campus includes:
We also have access to world class sporting facilities at the nearby Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre and Lakeside Stadium and we partner with leading community sporting organisations to deliver programs of excellence.
In addition to our sporting partnerships we engage with numerous local, national and international organisations, such as:
