Cornish College
Why Cornish?
When you choose Cornish College, you choose a wealth of educational experiences. From our passionate, experienced staff to the many cocurricular opportunities, Cornish offers education quite like no other.
Cornish's inspiring learning environment and holistic approach to education empowers students to be curious, courageous and compassionate. Our expert teachers design meaningful curriculum that challenges and extends students to become future leaders.
This curriculum is powerful, with a focus on academic achievement and generating rich understandings and creativity. Through inquiry-based learning, we combine subject-specific knowledge with valuable skills that empower students to learn beyond the classroom. Our well-rounded approach gives students the tools to thrive now and into the future to meet the socio-cultural, economic, technological and environmental challenges of our time.
Educational Philosophy
At Cornish College, we educate for a sustainable, thriving tomorrow, engaging students beyond textbooks and encouraging them to consider how their decisions impact the world around them. Our holistic education sees students engage deeply across disciplines, critically evaluating problems and finding creative solutions.
We develop curriculum to educate for a sustainable future, with structures that mobilise the attitudes, skills, knowledge and values required for young people to become the best individuals they have the capacity to be. We embed sustainability in all of our teaching and cocurricular activities, through our Rings of Sustainability, which underpin our curriculum and focus on natural, personal, socio-cultural and urban/technological sustainability. Everything we do supports one of our rings, helping students to understand their learning in a local, regional and global context.
Our motto is 'Make a difference and be the difference'. At the heart of this is our dedication to developing independence, compassion and personal excellence amongst our students, ensuring they have the capacity and the desire to make a difference for a sustainable, thriving tomorrow, both locally and globally.
Learning Environment
Located on 100 acres of natural parkland, Cornish College provides Early Learning to Year 12 students with the space to stretch their legs and their curiosity, exploring knowledge beyond the classroom. Our environment is the key to our vision of educating students for a sustainable, thriving tomorrow.
The College has excellent primary and secondary facilities, an internationally recognised Early Learning Centre, and a Senior Studies Centre, which provides an environment for powerful learning, suited to the demands for global competencies while maintaining a connection with our beautiful grounds for student wellbeing.
Classes at Cornish are not bound by traditional walls, and our “100-acre classroom” is used to its maximum potential as a learning space. Our award-winning EcoCentre allows students to learn and create outdoors while building their knowledge around sustainability, animals, food production and the use of recycled materials, with facilities including an aquaponics area, enclosures for chickens, ducks and guinea fowl, an orchard and beehives. These outdoor facilities are often integrated with classroom learning, such as the EcoKids program, which covers a kitchen-garden experience, nature pedagogy and sustainability.
Our learning environment ensures students thrive. When we measure success, we favour a holistic approach, putting student health and wellbeing on the same level as academics. Students explore diverse interest alongside their academics, with cocurricular opportunities spanning the arts, STEM and sport, and community programs to develop positive relationships and mental health. These enrich the curriculum, encouraging students to draw upon our values of compassion, integrity, respect and creativity - always with courage - to make a difference.
Early Learning Centre
Cornish College's Early Learning Centre (ELC) is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence for children from 3 to 5 years of age.
Our indoor and expansive outdoor ELC learning environment is strongly influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach, the Early Years Learning Framework, nature pedagogy and the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, which encourages inquiry-based learning.
Our ELC values and respects children as collaborative learners and provides a foundation for young children to become responsible citizens of the world, fostering self-esteem, resilience, reflection, imagination, curiosity and a lifelong love of learning.
Primary Years
The Cornish College primary team provides an excellent educational program for students from Prep to Year 6 in a friendly, caring environment. As an authorised International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) school, Cornish offers a conceptual, transdisciplinary, inquiry-based and student-centred educational program.
Enriched by sustainability education - including the EcoKids garden and Dhumba-dha biik* walks to connect students with the land - and cocurricular opportunities, our primary curriculum combines concepts and inquiry, ensuring students engage deeply with their learning. Through the PYP, students experience learning that is engaging, significant, challenging and relevant as it spans between, across and beyond traditional subject boundaries through practical, cross-age learning experiences.
*Dhumba-dha biik, used with permission, is Boon wurrung language for ‘Talk Country’.
Secondary Years
Deep, transferable learning continues throughout our secondary school, with a curriculum focusing on concepts beyond topics. This, combined with an emphasis on inquiry, problem-identifying and problem-solving, ensures students apply their knowledge and skills across disciplines.
Year 7 students undertake discipline-based learning through inquiries in core subjects such as English, Humanities, Mathematics and Science, as well as Physical Education, Languages, Personal Sustainability, Religious Education, Music, Drama, Materials Technology, Food Technology and Visual Arts.
Years 8 and 9 students study English, Humanities, Mathematics, Science, Language, Global Sustainability, and Personal Sustainability/Health, Sport and Physical Education as well as Super Studies - diverse electives drawn from Design Technology, Economics, Enterprise, the Arts, STEM, Environmental Studies, Food Technology and ICT. Super Studies subjects provide foundational skills while promoting engagement and developing individual talents.
Year 9 students participate in the Make a Difference Experience, a global enrichment program including a cultural immersion trip. This journey invites students to authentically explore how a meaningful cultural exchange is reciprocal and involves learning from others and sharing what you have to offer, and how a sustainable world depends on knowledgeable, active citizens making a difference.
Our senior program provides flexibility for students' career pathways, with the option to complete VCE over three years, creating space for wellbeing and an opportunity to pursue learning in areas they are passionate and curious about beyond what a traditional curriculum or VCE study design would provide. Design Futures 100 allows students to co-create a personalised curriculum developing their creativity, agility, self-efficacy, autonomy, critical thinking, collaboration skills, design and enterprise, in turn creating their own interdisciplinary inquiry which is engaging and meaningful to them. Students are also involved in leadership, conferences, community service, sport and school activities, health, driver education, digital citizenship programs and a range of internal and external programs.
Lastly, in Years 10, 11 and 12 our program creates space alongside student's VCE studies to pursue learning in areas they are passionate and curious about - areas that go well beyond the scope of what a traditional curriculum or VCE study design would provide. Design Futures 100 allows students to co-create a personalised curriculum developing their creativity, agility, self-efficacy, autonomy, critical thinking, collaboration skills that aligns with their areas of interest and goals. Developing skills in design and enterprise, students create their own interdisciplinary inquiry which is engaging and meaningful to them.