Located on the one campus at Gordon on Sydney’s north shore, Ravenswood has been educating girls from Kindergarten to Year 12 for more than 110 years.
Established in 1901, this Uniting Church School is one of Australia’s leading independent girls’ schools, offering a broad-based curriculum with a strong academic focus and an excellent and consistent record of high achievement in all areas.
Ravenswood understands that its school is a community made up of learners with varying and individual needs and aims to support the development of the whole person. Learning at Ravenswood embraces the academic, the practical, the physical and the spiritual in a caring, Christian environment.
Ravenswood offers a unique combination: quality teaching and outstanding academic results; a school that is just the right size, small enough for individual care but large enough to offer choices; and a focus on the development of a girl’s character and values. With a focus on helping each student to meet her maximum potential and make the most of her abilities, the Ravenswood approach is to assist girls in learning to learn so that they have the thinking skills, independence and resilience required to take their place as adults making a positive contribution as world citizens. Ravenswood girls experience a wide range of choices in co-curricular activities spanning international exchanges, sport, performing and creative arts, cadets, debating and public speaking and outdoor education.
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma and the Higher School Certificate are offered to students in senior years as a learning pathway choice. Senior girls also have the option of full, weekly or short-stay boarding in the Ravenswood Residential College. The structure of Junior School, Middle School and Senior School is designed to tailor learning to meet the particular needs of students at different stages of development. As they progress through the school, the teaching practice, the physical learning spaces and the expectations of the students create a developmental journey leading towards university and beyond.
“The aim of Ravenswood is to provide students with the foundations for the future and to provide them with the values and skills that will enable them to be confident and capable citizens of the world. Ravenswood girls leave school well equipped for their future: as balanced, capable, confident and caring young women,” says Principal Vikki Steer.
Preparatory School: From Kindergarten-Year 6, the junior school experience focuses on developing each girl’s passion for learning; her willingness to accept challenges; her confidence to participate in a range of activities; and the opportunity for her to develop her skills and explore her interests. The youngest girls begin their school life with a program of learning that is both formal and experiential in nature and provides a welcoming transition from home to school with its varied learning and play spaces, gardens, cubby house and playground equipment. Intake years in junior school are Years 3 and 5.
New students undertake a purposeful and structured orientation in order for the girls to quickly develop friendships and have a sense of belonging in a school where all girls are known by staff and other students alike. However, junior school students are accepted into other Year groups if space is available. In junior school the core subjects of Literacy, Numeracy, Science and Human Society and Its Environment (HSIE) are differentiated and integrated where possible. All classes participate in an explicit and embedded Thinking Skills program designed to develop each student’s analytical and deductive thinking. Programs of learning provide support, extension and Gifted and Talented in order to cater for each individual’s learning needs.
The school’s aim is to ensure the wellbeing and ongoing development of each girl is at the highest level. Experienced classroom teachers and specialist staff focus on providing an enriched and stimulating program of learning, enabling each girl to achieve her best. The resources and facilities of the whole school are used by junior school girls. The Ravenswood experience is all-encompassing, from Years 5 and 6 specialist Science programs in laboratories to the use of extensive multi-media tools for communication and learning. These form part of the Ravenswood experience and help to engage and energise girls in their passion for learning. Ravenswood fosters a learning environment that supports a philosophy of “learning better by being involved”. Experiences go beyond the classroom to real-life situations through hands-on workshops, orientation and academic camp programs, and a broad range of co-curricular activities.
During their junior years, girls develop friendships across year groups through the integrated play sessions at recess and lunch, Better Buddy Program, Peer Support, Year 6 Leadership roles and Year 12 Big Sisters programs. These provide not only support and role models, but also inspiration and a sense of belonging to the Ravenswood community. From Kindergarten to Year 6, the Junior School experience focuses on each girl’s pa ssion for learning; their willingness to take on challenges; their confidence to find solutions; and the opportunity for them to explore their skills and interests.
Senior School: From Years 7 to 12, the Middle and Senior School experience focuses on encouraging girls to take intellectual risks; to think outside traditional constraints; to embrace the challenge of learning; to be an active initiator in their learning; to develop a global awareness; and to be leaders.
Girls in the senior years have the option to board in the Ravenswood Residential College, and a wide choice of subjects to study. Most importantly, the senior students have the choice of either the Higher School Certificate (HSC) or the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) for their final school credential.
The aim of Ravenswood is to provide students with the foundations for the future: with the values and skills that will enable them to be confident and capable citizens of the world.
Facilities: The school has a new learning resources facility for K–12which includes libraries, dance and drama space, senior study lounge and café and outdoor classrooms. There is a centenary centre including a performing arts auditorium, classrooms and exhibition areas. Attractive grounds feature landscaped garden areas and courtyards, an athletics field, an extensive multi-purpose complex with a heated pool, a flexible gymnasium, and a strength and conditioning centre. Ravenswood also has a purpose-designed kindergarten cottage, Junior School Centre, boarding house, computer laboratories, and networked computers and wireless notebooks in classrooms.
Electives Years 9 and 10: Commerce, Design & Technology, Drama, Food Technology, French, German, History, Information & Software Technology, Japanese, Latin, Music, Physical Activity & Sports Studies (PASS), Textiles Technology, History Elective and Visual Arts.
Electives Years 11 and 12: HSC courses include: Beginners’ Chinese, Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Community and Family Studies, Design and Technology, Economics, English (Advanced, Standard, Extension 1 and 2), English as a Second Language, Heritage Speakers Chinese, Ancient and Modern History, Drama, Latin, Food Technology, French, German, Geography, Hospitality Curriculum Framework, Information Processes and Technology, Japanese, Legal Studies, Mathematics, Mathematics Extension 1 and 2, General Mathematics, PD/Health/PE, Physics, Software Design and Development, Senior Science, Society and Culture, Studies of Religion 2, Music 1 and 2, Visual Arts. Students’ diverse needs are further catered for by enabling them to access courses taught through outside providers such as The Whitehouse Institute of Design, Open High School, Colleges of TAFE, The Saturday School of Community Languages, and The University of Sydney.
IB subjects include: Biology, Chemistry, Chinese (Mandarin ab initio), Economics, English, French, German, Japanese, Latin, History, Mathematics HL and SL, Mathematical Studies, Music, Physics, Psychology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Spanish abi nitio, Theatre and Visual Arts.
Sport: Tennis, softball, basketball, hockey, netball, cricket, swimming, athletics, gymnastics, diving, trampolining, water polo, rhythmics. Elective sports include: aerobics, jazz dance, life-saving, indoor rock climbing, aqua aerobics, surf awareness, ice-skating, Latin American dancing, football, social tennis, driver education, sports injury and oxy-resuscitation, and tenpin bowling.
Extracurricular activities: Crusaders, drama, debating, public speaking, Mock Trial, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, Year 11 community sports, theatre technical team, chess club, orchestra, concert band, choirs, madrigal groups, chamber orchestra, ensembles.
Welfare and personal development: Integrated Kindergarten to Year 12 personal development programs, tutor groups, student network support scheme, Year 10 community service, Years 5 and 7 transition programs, Years 3 to 11 camps program and Global Experience program. Discipline and dress policy is consistent with the tradition of the school.
From the school: Ravenswood offers a broad-based education with a strong academic focus and an excellent and consistent record of high achievement in all areas. As a “World School” offering both the HSC and IB, Ravenswood is committed to expanding girls’ horizons and providing opportunities for increased understanding and experience of the world in which we live. Students are offered a diversity of choice — from extensive curriculum offerings providing academic challenges, through to co-curricular programs and camps, sporting trips, exchange programs and community experiences both in Australia and internationally.