Case Study: Residential, Rural and Community-Living Models
Rural and Community-Living Models involve middle-years designs in which students, most commonly in Year 9, leave their home campus for an extended experience that often combines academic learning with outdoor, community-based and personal development opportunities.
Case Study: Overnewton Anglican Community College
Overnewton Anglican Community College is a mid-fee independent Prep-Year 12 school in Melbourne’s north-west, enrolling approximately 2,146 students across two campuses in Keilor (Yirramboi) and Taylors Lakes (Canowindra) (Overnewton Anglican Community College, 2024). Its defining feature is a standalone Year 9 Centre at the Canowindra campus, physically separated from both Middle School (Years 5-8) and Senior School (Years 10-12).
Case Study: Carey Baptist Grammar School
Carey Baptist Grammar School is an independent co-educational school in Kew, Melbourne, founded in 1923. With approximately 2,564 students across five campuses and an ICSEA of 1177, Carey is one of the largest and most resourced independent schools in Victoria (My School, 2025). Its academic performance is consistently strong, with recent cohorts achieving high proportions of ATARs above 90 alongside robust IB results.
Case Study: Hester Hornbrook Academy (HHA)
Hester Hornbrook Academy (HHA) is a fee-free independent Specialist Assistance School operating across five metropolitan Melbourne campuses, with a Geelong campus planned for 2027. It is governed by Melbourne City Mission (MCM), a long-standing community service organisation.
Case Study: The Pavilion School
The Pavilion School is a Victorian government flexible learning program operating as a sub-campus of Charles La Trobe P–12 College (CLTC) in Melbourne’s north. Founded in 2007, the school began with 20 students in a sporting pavilion in West Heidelberg in response to community concern that mainstream schooling was not serving a cohort of highly disengaged young people.
Case Study: Global Village Learning (GVL)
Global Village Learning (GVL) is a small independent school located on a 10-acre rural property in New Gisborne, in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges. Formerly Gisborne Montessori School, it rebranded to Global Village Learning in 2023–2024. GVL draws on Montessori, Reggio Emilia, place-based and inquiry-based traditions, integrating these within a learner-led framework.
Case Study: Preshil
Preshil is an independent co-educational school in Kew, Melbourne, occupying two heritage-listed campuses, that has sustained a progressive approach to education for nearly a century. The school emphasises student agency, democratic participation, creative and expressive forms of learning, and the integration of intellectual and emotional growth.
Case Study: Woodleigh School
Woodleigh School is an independent co-educational school operating across three campuses on the Mornington Peninsula, approximately 40 minutes south-east of Melbourne’s CBD. The Senior Campus in Langwarrin South is set within a bushland environment, a physical context that deliberately reinforces the school’s emphasis on experiential and relational learning.
Case Study: Bayside P-12 College
Bayside P-12 College is a Victorian government school in Melbourne’s inner west, serving Williamstown, Altona North and Newport across three campuses. With around 958 students and an ICSEA of 1006, it sits close to the state median. Its student population is highly multilingual (48% LBOTE), shaping the college’s identity and learning needs (Bayside P–12 College, 2024).
Case Study: Wodonga Middle Years College (WMYC)
Wodonga Middle Years College is a Victorian government school in inner-regional Wodonga, established in 2006 through a deliberate restructuring of the town’s public secondary system. Three secondary schools were merged and reimagined as two specialist settings, WMYC for Years 7–9 and Wodonga Senior Secondary College for Years 10-12.