Eltham High School

Eltham High School is a secondary school in Victoria, Australia. It is located in Eltham, a suburb which is north-east from Melbourne. It is mainly known for the creativity of its students, in areas such as art, drama, and music. It is also acclaimed for its successful volleyball program. The school is known for being one of 'free dress' and is the only non-uniform secondary school in the Eltham area. With the exception of a sports uniform, students at the school are permitted to dress as they please in order to express their individuality.

Eltham High School's internationally revered music program,^[1] currently being overseen by Rick Plummer, which has won numerous awards, is highly developed in the brass and symphonic band areas. The band was invited to play at the Chicago Midwest Clinic in 1997 and is one of the only high school bands to ever have attended the event.

A darkroom is available for student use and is capable of developing over 160 photographs per hour. Aside from the photography program, the school excels in most arts including media, Visual Communication and Design, ceramics and general art studies.

Year level structure

The year levels are broken up into three different groups which are:

• Junior School (Year 7), led by Jodie Sutton
• Middle School (Years 8–9), led by Ross McKinnon
• Senior School (Years 10–12), led by Anna Panas

Student Laptop Initiative

At the end of 2011, Eltham High School started rolling out the One to One Laptop Program initiated by the then Rudd Government for the start of the 2012 school year. This program involved the purchase of several hundred Dell Inspiron M102z laptops, either under funding from the Australian National Secondary School Computer Fund (NSSCF) ^[2] to provide access for students in Years 9–12 or funded through a lease agreement for students in Years 7 and 8.^[3]

This program has continued in 2013 with the roll out of more than 230 Dell XT3 tablet laptops to Year 7 students. All the notebooks in the program run a standard operating environment (SOE) provided by DEECD with a multitude of free and paid software. As of 2015, Eltham High School's chosen device was the Microsoft Surface Pro 3.^[4] The school also has licensing for a number of additional commercial software suites including Adobe Master Collection, which is available on all classroom and library computers and will be installed on select lease laptops dependent on student course enrolment.

The program has proved to be highly successful and beneficial in preparing students for the technology and program usage they will encounter in day-to-day life in the future. Further changes to the school curriculum have been made since the implementation of the program. As of 2015, all Year 7 texts will be in digital format.

Sport

The Eltham Stallions Senior Boys Football Team won the 2013 School Sports Victoria State championship, led by football coach Steven McCrystal and Peter Nicholson. Eltham High School also has an award-winning volleyball program that is currently led by Greg Thomas. The school recently won its 30th VSSSA pennent since 1996. The program has produced many outstanding volleyballers that have continued on to represent both Victoria and Australia at many championship competitions. Eltham High School is the most successful volleyball school in VSSSA history.

Alumni

• Phillip Adams - broadcaster^[5]
• Kerry Armstrong - actress
• Georgia Bonora - gymnast
• Emily Browning - actress
• Peter Brock - racing car driver^[6]
• Cadel Evans - cyclist^[7]
• Lloyd Mash - cricket player
• Ben Mendelsohn - actor^[5]
• Peter Moore - Australian rules footballer
• Merrick Watts - broadcaster and comedian^[5]
• Daisy Pearce - Australian rules footballer

References

• Eltham High School Website