Ballarat and Clarendon College


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Ballarat and Clarendon College
Image:Ballaratclarendon.jpg
E Studis Veritas et Claritas
([1]
Established 1864 (Ballarat College) & 1868 (Clarendon College)[2]
School Type Independent, Co-educational, Day & Boarding
Denomination Uniting Church
Key People Mr. David Shepherd (Principal)
Rev. William Henderson (Founder)
Mrs Elizabeth Kennedy (Founder)
Mr. Arthur Drummond (Chaplain)
School Fees AU$2,372 p.a-AU$11,304 p.a (Day School)
AU$15,336 p.a-AU$23,064 p.a (Boarding School)[3]
Location Ballarat, Victoria, Australia Flag of Australia
Enrolment ~1200 (K-12)[2]
Colours Red, Black, Gold, Blue                 
Homepage www.clarendon.vic.edu.au

Ballarat and Clarendon College is an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school, located in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

Formerly affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of Australia, it is now a school of the Uniting Church and a member of the Ballarat Associated Schools.

The school currently has 1200 students from the ELC (Early Learning Centre) to Year 12.

Contents

History

Ballarat College commenced on Wednesday 6 July 1864 at the church of the Presbyterian Rev William Henderson, in Sturt Street Ballarat. Clarendon Presbyterian Ladies' College was established by Mrs Elizabeth Kennedy, wife of the Rev Robert Kennedy in 1876. The two schools had many years of cooperative connections through their history and merged to become Ballarat and Clarendon College in 1974. Since the two schools merged there have been many changes to the school physically and spiritually. Ballarat and Clarendon College is now a school of the uniting Church and students have a weekly service.

Laptop Computer Program

In 1995 Ballarat and Clarendon College started a laptop computer program.

Students starting Year 7 in 1995 were required to lease or buy a laptop from the schools provider Computerlec. Later the school expanded this program to include students from Year 5.

Students are required to have a supplied laptop computer until Year 9.

Ballarat and Clarendon College has been issuing TOSHIBA Portege Laptops and tablet PC's since the program begun. The most recent laptop is the TOSHIBA Portege M700 Tablet PC. It comes with Windows Vista but that is removed so that Windows XP Tablet PC edition can be installed in order to work with the school's network.

The school uses Wi-Fi technology to provide constant internet access to students. All internet access is filtered by a company called networkbox. No pornographic material can be accessed and a majority of other offensive material is also banned. For a period of time, some IT literate students (commonly referred to as 'nerds' or 'geeks' by the mainstream students) ran servers which could be used to bypass the internet blocks. For a few months these servers were accessed by a lot of students. This allowed them to access popular sites such as 'facebook' and 'myspace' as well as their home email accounts. The 'free' internet didn't last long however, with networkbox quickly discovering the security flaw and blocking the use of home servers. For years students have been bypassing the unfair blocks with different methods and being caught by the authorities. Analysts predict more sophisticated bypass servers and such being used by students into the future as the constant 'catch-up' game of unblocking the internet is played. Others predict that the school will introduce a 'white list' blocking setup which will ban every website except a select few that are added to the 'white list.' This will make it a lot more difficult for students to access the websites they are not allowed to.

The reason for blocking some websites is obvious. Pornographic sites, for example, are clearly inappropriate in a school environment. Other sites, such as those promoting games, are blocked so that students can focus on their studies instead of being distracted by gaming. The confusion comes when social networking and email sites are blocked. A statement released by one of the school's IT staff suggests that the bans are to reduce costs by reducing the bandwidth used.

The students are supplied with Microsoft Office 2003. ...

Campuses

  • Senior School - Years 10 - 12

Sturt St, Ballarat

  • Middle School - Years 5 - 9

Sturt St, Ballarat

  • King Island Campus - Year 9

Grassy, King Island

  • Junior Campus - Years K - 4

Mair St, Ballarat

Co-curriculum

Sport

The College participates in many sports both within and outside the Ballarat Associated Schools. In recent years there have been successes in Australian Rules Football and Netball. There is a strong competition with the catholic boys St Patrick's College next door (particularly in Football and Soccer), as well as with the coeducational Ballarat Grammar School. Other high profile sports within the school include athletics, basketball, cricket and tennis. Also James Couzins girls first Football team is notorious for vitory against other Ballarat schools with the exception of the 2008 season James led the team to seven seasons of undefeated Football, well done James.

Another notable sport participated within the school is Rowing. The rowing program starts at Year 8 and continues through the years. There is a very strong competition with St. Patricks College and Ballarat and Queens Anglican Grammar School. In 2008 the BCC Girl's First's Crew won the annual Head of the River race at the Barwon river in Geelong and consequently won the Head of the Schoolgirl's competition Ross Henderson is the schools rowing coach and an all round good bloke.


Performing Arts

Alongside the school's reputation for sports and academica, Ballarat and Clarendon College has a very strong Performing Arts curriculum. The school has a free standing building on the East of the senior campus where all aspects of Performing Arts take place, subsequently called, The Performing Arts Centre (PAC). From years 5-9 students take different Performing Arts Classes which rotate each trimester, Music, Dance and Drama. Beside BCC's character of having very dedicated dance and drama students, the College also has one of the strongest school music programs in Ballarat. Students accordingly participate in Music lessons, for; (Violin is the best instrument)

  • Brass -Trumpet, French Horn, Euphonium and Tuba.


  • Woodwind - Flute, Clarinet (+Bass Clarinet), All Saxophone types, Oboe,Euphonium, Recorder and Bassoon.


  • Piano - Piano, Contemporary Piano.


  • Keyboard


  • Guitar - Classical Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar.


  • Strings - Violin, Viola, Violoncello and Double Bass.


  • Music Theory


  • Speech Art


  • Singing


and then they may participate in any of the student ensembles at the school. There are,

  • Novice Band,


  • Geoff Smith Jazz Orchestra,


  • Show Band,


  • Stage Band,


  • Celtic Group,


  • Ensemble Nouvou,


  • Intermediate and Senior Strings


and numerous contempory bands.

As well as this, the College puts on an annual Senior School Production, Middle School Production and Junior School Production.

Notable alumni

See also

External links

v • d • e
Members of the Ballarat Associated Schools, Victoria, Australia






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