About Our School
Students at the College live in and around Wilsons Promontory National Park, the Wilsons Promontory and Corner Inlet National Marine Parks, Nooramunga Marine and Coastal Park, State forests. farming, fishing, hospitality, conservation, recreation, health and education are major industries, supporting a vibrant community rich in sporting, arts and cultural activities. The environment is highly valued by the community. The Corner Inlet area attracts many people who choose the lifestyle offered in such a rich natural area.
The College maintains an enrolment of 270 students and aims to cultivate all of the advantages inherent in being a country secondary college, most particularly, in the creation of an intimate, caring and nurturing learning environment where the potential of the individual is optimized. The College maintains a staff of 45 people, including teaching and non-teaching staff, some of whom work part-time.
Our school has worked tirelessly over recent years to institute a comprehensive plan to improve the quality of teaching and learning and this has resulted in significant improvement in various aspects of our school’s data. In 2017 Foster Secondary College was identified as a school of ‘Influence’ in the new look School Performance Report based on NAPLAN data, Student Attitude To School data and VCE data. In all of these areas our school has outperformed like schools as well as the state average. As part of the school review process in 2017, a DET official described our school as ‘the best performing secondary college in all of Gippsland’. This was celebrated in the local press at the time.
We currently have a Charles Sturt University Phd student studying our methodology in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) after identifying our school as an ‘overachiever’ based on our data in these areas as well. These are all great accolades for the school and a credit to the hard work of all staff and students at the college.
The curriculum at Foster Secondary College is designed to offer depth in student learning and meet the demands of breadth in choice as we prepare students for a life of education after they finish school. The College has introduced the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) from Years 7 – 10 and is continually engaged in developing new courses that reflect both VELS and the assessment of, for and as learning pedagogies that are inherent in VELS. Students in Years 10 – 12 may access Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) subjects, Vocational Education & Training (VET) courses or enroll in the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) program.
While there is some overlap in these different courses at post-compulsory stage of learning, the College has formed key partnerships through the VET cluster, the Bass Coast South Gippsland Local Learning and Employment Network (LLEN) and with neighboring schools to enhance delivery options for students.
While VCE results vary in some years according to the cohort of students, Foster Secondary College consistently enables students to reach their potential and has a very strong record in achieving tertiary placements in universities and TAFEs, apprenticeships and employment for Later Years students.
The school is proud of its co-curricular offerings which feature an excellent classroom and instrumental music program shared across four local secondary schools, an extensive school camps program, comprehensive involvement in intra and inter-school sport and highly popular annual musical productions and concerts.
