Croydon Community School

Last Updated on Tuesday, 02 June 2009 18:43

Located at:
177-181 Mt Dandenong Road (Cnr. Anzac Street), Croydon VIC 3136
Telephone: (03) 9724 2900
Fax: (03) 9723 7286

Croydon Community School is a small government secondary school located in Croydon with convenient access to public transport. The school has a current enrolment of 120 students in Years 7-13 and attracts young people from across a wide area including Ringwood, Wantirna, Scoresby, Ferntree Gully, Lilydale, Healesville, Knox, Wandin, Doncaster and Heathmont.

The school provides an alternate secondary education to students who for various reasons have experienced difficulty in their previous schools, or who are returning to study in order to prepare for work or further study.

Croydon Community School provides a learning environment which is supportive and safe. We promote close and constructive relationships between parents, students and staff. This allows us to individualise programs to effectively meet the needs of each student.

Students are organised in groups which are sometimes mixed ability and other times the same ability, with varying interests and combined different year levels. We have small classes to enable more individual attention by staff and maintain low student-teacher ratios. There is no school uniform, no bells and a strong focus on literacy, numeracy and personal development. The learning program aims to provide each student with the opportunity to choose a relevant curriculum which meets their individual needs and assists them to achieve their full potential. We want all students to experience success and to develop a positive attitude to life-long learning.

Students develop confidence within a safe environment to express opinions, to lead groups and to speak in public. Opportunities are constantly available to allow students to develop skills in working in groups, co-operative decision making and to enable the growth of individual power that comes with being a valued team member. Students improve their ability to make choices in their lives, take on responsibilities, face challenges and deal with the consequences of their actions. This doesn’t always happen quickly but we aim to work with students over extended periods of time.

Croydon Community School promotes self-esteem and empowerment of the individual through success. All staff, teaching and non-teaching work as a team and are supportive of one another. They are innovative and continually develop and implement challenging programs. Our teachers are versatile and prepared to teach outside their traditional subject areas. They are willing and capable of working in a variety of educational settings.

We provide many options for students to take on leadership roles, both within the school and beyond our boundaries. Martial Arts Therapy is the most significant of these programs with Croydon CS students assisting to run programs in many other schools.

Teachers work intensively with small groups of students to provide pastoral care. We also employ fulltime Social Workers and Youth Workers to assist students and their families. We link with community agencies whenever necessary and are used to managing multiple workers for some of our students.

Parents are encouraged to be involved in our community and to make a positive contribution to the running of the school. Parents are welcome to volunteer time, or join our School Council (meets monthly). Those with appropriate skills are able to offer specialist programs within the school.

More information about Croydon Community School can be found at http://www.croydoncs.vic.edu.au/.