Como Secondary College


Como Secondary College is an independent public co-educational specialist high day school, located in, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Established in 1969, the College caters for approximately 850 students from Year 7 to Year 12 with specialist programs delivered across academic talent, golf, hockey, and music.

History

The College is located on land that was part of the former Collier Pine Plantation, an area of approximately, planted in 1925 by the WA Forests Department.
The College was constructed in 1968, with the first classes commencing in February 1969. The College is open to students of ages 12 to 18. It currently has nearly 900 students attending classes, and often take Rotary exchange students from overseas on school exchange.

College life

The diversity of the student population is broadened by the contributions of an International Students' program at the school and by students who come from all over the metropolitan area and regional Western Australia to be part of one of the specialist programs. Many regional students choose to board in the nearby Rotary House, located in Victoria Park.
The College offers international tours in hockey, golf and music and the opportunity of travel to different international destinations with the World Challenge community service and humanitarian expedition every two years, with recent expeditions taking students to Borneo, India, and Laos and Cambodia.

Approved specialist programs

The College, as part of the Department of Education, offers multiple specialist programs in the fields of music, hockey, golf and academics.

EMITS

The EMITS programme, which is a selective programme available by application, testing and interview. The EMITS students are placed in a streamed class for all core curriculum areas for the first three years and then progress seamlessly to the year eleven and twelve mainstream program. The College has developed a strong relationship with Curtin University – Western Australia’s largest and most multicultural university. The College's EMITS program challenges its students everyday to think about the world around them and how they might improve it.

Golf

The Golf Academy is one of the most successful school programmes in Australia - with a string of local, state, and national titles and achievements to its credit. Over 16 professional golfers including Matt Jager, Kristie Smith and Hannah Green have graduated from the program, and the Academy holds five Australasian titles, five national teams’ titles, and thirteen state teams’ titles. The Como Golf Academy has won a number of state, national and international titles and has had a significant number of state and national representatives as well as State and World Champions amongst its ranks.
The Hockey Program is Australia's best school hockey program - with both boys' and girls' teams dominating competitions in Western Australia every year. The College's Hockey Academy has won numerous State School Championship Titles.
On 18 August 2017, the Como Hockey Academy set a Guinness World Record for the Largest Hockey Lesson. The Lesson included 618 participants.

Music

The College's Contemporary Jazz program is regarded as a hub for creativity and musical development, giving its students a creative environment to learn and develop skills that will enrich their musical experience. The program caters for varying genres, with its main focus on Contemporary and Jazz music, with ensembles ranging from Contemporary groups, Jazz Big Bands of varying skill, to both junior and senior Concert Bands. The program boasts highly regarded teachers, many of whom have years, even decades of professional experience in a wide array of musical forms. The program has produced many fine musicians who have gone on to study at WAAPA, the West Australian Conservatorium of Music at UWA, and other highly regarded musical institutions, with some current/past students even accepted into playing in the states most prestigious youth music institutions; WAYJO.
The College's "School of Contemporary Music" program regularly competes in music festivals in Melbourne and Sydney.

Catchment area

As defined by the School Education Act 1999, the Intake Area for Como Secondary College covers the entire suburbs of South Perth, Como, Manning, Salter Point, Karawara, Waterford and Wilson, with the feeder primary schools of Como, Collier, Manning, Wilson and Curtin.
15% of the student enrolments are from beyond the local catchment, attending the school's specialist studies programs.

Notable alumni