We were born through the amalgamation and restructure of six schools-Sunshine Technical School, Sunshine West High School, Ardeer High School, Sunshine North Technical School, Sunshine High School and Tottenham Technical School, with the latter two schools closing and the sites now being operated by Victoria University and Tottenham English Language Centre respectively. Sunshine College opened in 1992 with over 2000 students.
Now Four campuses, three junior campuses for years 7-10 in Ardeer, North Sunshine, West Sunshine and the Senior campus in Graham Street caters for VCE year 11&12, we also run the Harvester Technical College, aimed at developing top-class trades persons to address skill shortages in the trades.
The building is located adjacent to the North Campus in Suffolk Rd and was judged as the Educational Building of 2009 by the World Architecture News organisation based in London.
We also operate the OASIS unit for students on the verge of expulsion from schools across the Western and Northern Regions and we support the Sunshine Teaching Unit that looks after disengaged students from the Western Suburbs on a term based (10 week) placement program.
The College also runs a Deaf Facility from the Ardeer and VCE campuses to support learning outcomes for the hearing impaired.In excess of 50 nationalities are represented throughout the College.We have identified Literacy, which underpins all the teaching and learning at the school as a key improvement area for the College.Literacy development through our program has gained considerable recognition; Sunshine College has been judged runners up in the Most Innovative School section of the Herald Sun Teacher of the Year Awards.
Students are grouped into 4 levels of competency, based on reading comprehension test results. Students from years 7 to 11 complete 4 periods of literacy a week.This program enhances outcomes for all students including our high achievers.All staff have been provided professional development to deliver the program; that is based on the work and research of Dr Carol Christensen from Queensland University.
The College was also runners up in the section of the Herald Sun Teacher of the Year Awards for our work in developing a vocational/pastoral care program titled 慞athways /i> that runs throughout years 7 to 10 as a core subject.
Vocational guidance becomes a major focus in years 9 to 10 where students take part in programs in the city i.e. City Centre, WOW (World of Work) and work experience.
Much of our Beacon Foundation activities are embedded in this subject and includes our Year 10 Charter Signing event where students and members of the community pledge to make sure our students continue onto further study or work in the coming years.
We have in excess of 95% of our year 12 students going onto a Tertiary placement.
The College has produced Premier Award winners, a VCE Achiever of the Year, numerous Daffyd Lewis Scholarship winners, exhibited student work in the VCE Top Design Awards, a number of Regional Industry and Education awards and the duxes of the College in last years are presently studying Medicine, Commerce, Engineering, Law and Dentistry.
Our student attitudinal Surveys run by the department puts us in the top 10% of Government Secondary Schools in the state.
These surveys provide data on school connectedness, peer connectedness, teacher connectedness and how safe students feel at school and indicates the strength of the pastoral care program in the school.
Our VCE results are comparable to the local non-government (private) schools and better than the Western Metropolitan average for government schools.
Our NAPLAN results in READING + NUMERACY shows that if you start Year 7 at Sunshine College that when you get to Year 9 you have improved faster than the average Year 9 student in the State. Our Students perform.
