School Overview

Over the last three years the major priorities for our school have been to support and challenge all students to achieve academic success in their studies, to ensure a harmonious and safe learning environment, and to provide students with pathways to future education, training and employment (Charter 2004 - 2005).

Every year the Department of Education collects data to analyse each schools performance. St Albans Secondary College data for 2006 show our continuing success in keeping students at school and supporting them to achieve academic succuss, and to progress to further study and work.

The Department of Education divides schools into nine groups based on the proportion of families which receives EMA or AUSTUDY and the proportion of Non English Speaking Background (NESB) families. St Albans Secondary College is in ‘like’ school group (LSG) 9 which has high levels of EMA or AUSTUDY recipients and high levels of NESB families.

Each school’s performance is looked at in comparison to other schools in the same ‘like’ schools group.
In 2006, St Albans Secondary College’s results in all performance areas measured by the Department of Education were equal to or better than ‘like’ schools, and in many areas better than state wide figures. Our VCE mean study score was above the like schools mean, with study scores in a number of subjects exceeding the statewide mean. The percentage of 40+ study scores was equal to like school figures.

We were highly successful in our goal of equipping students for further education and employment: the retention of students through to Year 12 is equal to the statewide mean, and the percentage of students continuing to university or TAFE is above the statewide figures.

Parent Satisfaction

A gauge of how well the school is operating is considered to be the parent satisfaction section of the parent survey.

A random sample of parents is selected annually to be surveyed. Parents answer a variety of questions which feed into a database and are graphed. One of the variables is Parent Satisfaction and the parents at St Albans Secondary College have, for many years, expressed their satisfaction with the school. The response to this variable was above the state mean for secondary schools.

The high quality work of our teaching and non teaching staff, the advice and guidance offered to students through our welfare and careers programs and through the Sub School teams, and the rich learning experiences provided to students through classroom and extra curricular programs all contribute to a successful and enjoyable schooling experience for our students.

Demographics

Enrolments for the past six years have remained just under 1000 pupils. The Year 7 intake has fluctuated over this time from between approximately 135 and 175, with the 2006 intake being slightly above these figures at 177.

Over recent years, the mix of males and females has remained approximately equal across the school with slight fluctuations at various year levels over this time. The drop in overall population in 2006 is attributable to a very large Year 12 which exited at the end of 2005, to minor transfers at other year levels, and to a substantial number of students who left the school at the end of Year 10 or 11 or during their VCE Year and obtained employment, transferred to alternative educational settings such as TAFE or were seeking work.