Yarra Valley Grammar

Yarra Valley Grammar's inclusive, welcoming community is one our families genuinely love and a place where our students feel inspired to achieve their very best. Set on a single 29-hectare campus, the School offers a coeducational learning experience for students from Early Learning through to Year 12. Our students are supported by talented and dedicated teachers who love what they do and know how to bring out the best in each individual. They understand the value of boys and girls working together to develop teamwork and self-confidence and, with around 1,300 students, our School is large enough to offer a diverse program, but small enough that each student is known by their teachers and peers.

Since 1966, Yarra Valley Grammar has offered students the best possible learning opportunities and experiences under the guidance of exceptional teachers. Our approach is based upon Christian values of compassion, inclusion, acceptance and commitment. The ways in which these values are brought to life and sustained through actions and recognition form the basis of our School’s culture.

We have high expectations of our students and we are committed to meeting our responsibilities to each of these young people: to equip them with the skills, knowledge and values they will need to become young men and women of integrity, with the confidence to strive to achieve their best. Our students are taught, nurtured and inspired by an outstanding team who are dedicated, passionate and committed to their roles as teachers, role models and mentors. We believe that when teachers and students develop strong relationships built on mutual trust and respect then our students will be happy and willing learners.

This generation will be the most educated in history. But no longer can we measure education in what we know; information is too vast in the 21st century to be able to do that. Instead, to be truly well educated, students need to know where to find knowledge, how to process it and how to use it. From Early Learning to Year 12, we build the skills for independent lifelong learning. Constant monitoring and reviewing of the teaching and learning program ensures that we are providing a comprehensive and stimulating curriculum, relevant to the needs of young people in a modern society. In the early years we focus on self-discovery. In the middle years, our innovative enhancement program breaks out of the classroom and gives students practical and engaging experiences. In the senior years, we focus on academic rigour, always preparing our students ahead of time for the challenges that they will face.

Students from a broad range of backgrounds, and partnerships with overseas schools, create a culture of diversity at Yarra Valley Grammar. We encourage our students to look outside their immediate networks and to consider their place as global citizens – a concept defined by mindset rather than nationality. We encourage them to pause every now and then in their day to day lives and to consider our rapidly changing world. This enables them to understand their place in society and to look for opportunities to contribute in a meaningful way. As a leading practitioner in co-education, Yarra Valley Grammar creates appropriate opportunities for boys and girls to work together.

The School Board has developed a Yarra Valley Grammar Strategic Plan 2015-2020 to guide the future of the School. Within that plan is an ongoing commitment to ensure that Yarra Valley Grammar remains a leader in education in Melbourne’s east. Adopting that commitment, Principal Dr Merry and his team have developed the Teaching and Learning Strategic Plan. The Teaching and Learning Strategic Plan supports our commitment to excellence in education and recognises that our greatest resource is excellence in teaching and exceptional teachers. The School actively undertakes to recruit highly professional people and to develop and support excellence in teaching.

The Board fully supports teaching and learning through the provision of the appropriate resources, facilities and personnel as outlined in the Yarra Valley Grammar Strategic Plan. By supporting this Teaching and Learning Strategic Plan we aim to ensure that the Yarra Valley Grammar experience is a defining one in the lives of young people, emphasising the quality of the educational experience. This will include the culture of the School; the way in which our values are brought to life, sustained positively and felt by all who are connected with the School. We will ensure consistency of teachers’ performance, action and delivery. We will generate confidence in all our stakeholders in the values, contribution, philosophy, strategies and impact of the School at an individual, family, community and societal level.

At Yarra Valley Grammar, ‘confidence to achieve’ is our mantra and our students’ reality. We aim to instil a love of learning that starts from our students’ very earliest years at school.In the ELC and Junior School, students’ introduction to learning focuses on self-discovery and success. In Middle School we concentrate on transition and enhancing the curriculum with unique and stimulating opportunities to engage and motivate teenagers. In the senior years, academic rigour becomes very important as we prepare our students for life after school. We are proud of our reputation as an inclusive, caring place to learn and grow, and of our ability to bring out the best in our students through an expansive program delivered by exceptional teachers. Explore our School and find out what makes us unique.