Private girls’ secondary schools in Victoria
There are over 110 secondary and combined private girls’ schools in Australia. Most of these schools are in Melbourne and Sydney, with at least 40 schools in each state.
For the purpose of this article, ‘private’ schools refer to non-government schools – both Independent and Catholic.
There are 44 private secondary and combined all-girls schools in Victoria, which we have listed below.
Private girls’ secondary schools in Melbourne
There are 41 private secondary and combined girls’ schools in Melbourne.
Melbourne City Central
Melbourne Southern Suburbs & Western Port
Melbourne Eastern Suburbs
Melbourne Northern Suburbs
Melbourne Western Suburbs
Search Melbourne private secondary and combined girls’ schools here.
Private girls’ secondary schools in Barwon-South Western
Clonard College — Geelong West
Sacred Heart College Geelong — Newtown
Private girls’ secondary schools in Ballarat
Why choose single-sex education?
Your decision may be based on factors such as family tradition, desire to have your child educated in a particular faith or context, or the academic performance of a school.
Researchers continue to examine the benefits and drawbacks of single-sex and co-ed schooling. Overall, there is no conclusive evidence to decide which environment is better and for whom. Recent years have seen a number of single-sex schools convert to a co-educational system — in some cases, this is because it allows schools to provide more academic and co-curricular options for their students.
Advantages and disadvantages of an all-girls education
One of the main arguments presented for single-sex schooling is that they may be able to cater better to the different learning styles of either boys or girls. This follows a widespread belief that the academic learning styles, interests and maturity levels differ between girls and boys (and at varying ages).
Many schools have recently made the transition to co-education have maintained single-sex academic classes. For example, some have mostly single-sex classes, but allow boys and girls to socialise in the school grounds. Some have single-sex classes (and even campuses) in middle years (often from ages 12–15) and mixed classes in senior years. Some schools believe that this method allows girls to achieve better results in subjects that boys typically outperform them (such as science and mathematics), and vice-versa.
Depending on where you are located and the size of the school you are considering, disadvantages of an all-girls education may include more limited subject choice, socialisation among genders, co-curricular programs and choice of school. Cost may also be a factor — while single-sex schools can be found across the Independent, Catholic and government sectors, schools are more typically Independent or Catholic.
