Mentone Girls’: A place for girls to thrive
Brought to you by Mentone Girls’ Grammar
At Mentone Girls’ Grammar, students from ELC to Year 12 become the confident, compassionate, and moral leaders our world needs. The safe, supportive environment that ensures every girl is known, seen and heard provides a carefully curated opportunity for girls to find their voice and learn how to use it.
Research unequivocally shows that single-sex schools like Mentone Girls’ Grammar offer the optimal conditions for girls to thrive, free from gender stereotypes, unconscious bias and countless other obstacles that can impede their development.
With 122 years of excellence in girls-only education, Mentone Girls’ Grammar offers a vast array of curricular and cocurricular activities spanning sport, academics and the performing arts.
Early Learning curriculum blends inquiry- and play-based learning drawn from the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) and the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework. This continues in the Junior School, where students delve deeply into concepts and make connections across subjects. Senior students engage with the humanities, mathematics, science, technology, languages, entrepreneurship and the arts.
Underpinning this are the Anglican values of social justice and community service, and the school’s strategic priorities that seek to protect and enhance each student’s social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing through a pastoral care program that equips them with skills to manage life’s challenges.
For Principal, Ms Natalie Charles, a Mentone Girls’ Grammar education is unparalleled. She says it is vital for girls to develop the confidence and skills to flourish in today’s complex world, which sends contradictory messages about who and what they can be.
“Leading and inspiring the next generation of women to take their place in a complex world — one that simultaneously empowers, disarms, celebrates and shames them — is a challenge,” she says.
“But by focusing on each girl’s need to acquire knowledge, develop transferable skills and, most importantly, find purpose and belonging, we ensure they rise boldly to opportunities and setbacks, inspiring hope in themselves and in others.
“We offer an intimate environment where every girl can achieve her personal best. This fosters a strong sense of belonging underpinned by exceptional pastoral care, teaching and learning.”
Academic results support this. Of the school’s Class of 2020, 37% were placed in the top 10% of Australia, with an Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) of 90 or higher, and 72% were placed in the top 20% of Australia, with an ATAR of 80 or more — remarkable achievements despite remote learning. Students also consistently achieve results above average in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. The school welcomes all talents and abilities, so such success is a testament to its learning and wellbeing initiatives.
Ms Charles says evidence in support of single-sex schools is undeniable.
“Compared with coeducational peers, girls from single-sex schools like Mentone Girls’ Grammar are less likely to be concerned about their mental health, have higher intentions of completing a degree or a doctorate, score higher on academic tests in science, mathematics and literacy, and are less likely to experience harassment at school.”
For Ms Charles, “Mentone Girls’ Grammar provides a beautiful respite from added pressures and allows young women to compete on their own terms. It gives a voice to girls’ opinions and choices while allowing them to challenge themselves without the fear of failure, empowering them to find their purpose in life.
“This is incredibly liberating and a truly powerful force for transformation.”
Mentone Girls’ Grammar hosts regular open mornings and tours where families can meet Principal Natalie Charles and experience the school in action. To book, call Admissions on 9581 1200 or visit www.mentonegirls.vic.edu.au.
