Adrian Farrer came to Trinity Grammar School at the tail end of the most traumatic period in the Anglican boys school’s 117-year history.
The previous headmaster, Michael Davies, had resigned two months after his deputy, Rohan Brown, was sacked for cutting a student’s hair.
Trinity Grammar principal Adrian Farrer with school captain Jack Stewart and junior school captain Wes Collins. Credit:Eddie Jim
Students and old boys gathered in their hundreds to protest, plunging the school into a very public crisis.
The public show of anger was in part an expression of resentment in the school community about a perceived narrowing of focus onto students getting high ATARs instead of their broader personal growth.
Now one term into the role, Mr Farrer is emphatic that the school has put that harrowing time “in the rear-view mirror” and is again focused on teaching its boys to be “good at the world and good in the world”.
“Parents tell us that they want their boys to be good people in the world first,” Mr Farrer said. “They want to grow their boys into good men.”
Students are expected to throw themselves into all aspects of the school program. Their school day might begin with a dawn rowing session on the Yarra, and end with violin practice at night.
“Music is as important as our maths, and footy matters as much as our physics,” Mr Farrer said.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but Trinity’s full-on program has also yielded consistent outstanding VCE results over the past decade, leading The Age to award the school its 2020 Schools That Excel non-government school winner for Melbourne’s east.
You can view your school's VCE results over the past decade using the interactive tool below:
Last year, it achieved a median study score of 36, its equal best score in a 10-year period in which its median has never dropped below 34.
Additionally, 26.1 per cent of its individual study scores were above 40, its second-best performance in 10 years.
Mr Farrer said Trinity’s teachers dedicated themselves fully to maintaining such consistently strong results, just as students were expected to.
“There’s no magical academic formula that leads you there,” he said. “Work ethic is key.”
Melbourne’s leafy east famously has a cluster of high-fee and competitive private schools that stake their reputations on academic excellence.
But government secondary schools in the area increasingly achieve similarly strong results.
Eight kilometres east of Trinity in Mont Albert North, Koonung Secondary College achieved its best VCE results in at least 10 years last year, with a median study score of 33; 9.4 per cent of VCE students’ study scores were above 40.
The Age has named Koonung its 2020 Schools That Excel winner in the government school category in Melbourne’s east.
Principal Marianne Lee said collaboration with other schools – not competition – was critical to the school’s recent improvement.
For the past three years, Koonung has been part of a combined push with three nearby government schools – East Doncaster Secondary College, Camberwell High School and John Monash Science School – to improve student outcomes.
In a photo taken before social distancing began, Koonung Secondary College principal Marianne Lee is seen with students Tim Woodfield (vice captain), Sarah Whitebrook (school captain), Blair Tink (school captain), Ellie Dooley (vice captain).
The schools set their students common assignments, then the four principals meet each term and share the results.
"We mark them together and then we identify where the kids were doing well or where there were weaknesses," Ms Lee said.
The collaboration has involved improving literacy in all aspects of the curriculum, including maths and science.
“All the data that we look at tells us that if kids can interpret questions really well on whatever subject they are learning, they are going to do better,” Ms Lee said.
“So we’ve had a real literacy focus for the last three years, collectively in every subject, and I think we are seeing a lot of growth.”
Teachers within the school also commit to sharing their best techniques for getting the most out of students, Ms Lee said.
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