Taroona High School


Taroona High School is a co-educational state high school located in Taroona, a southern riverside suburb of greater Hobart, the capital of the island state Tasmania. The school is located on the shore of the Derwent River, with a rocky beach. The school has approximately 1,0 students in grades 7 to 10. In 2003 Taroona High School underwent a major redevelopment. The school feeder zone covers students in the southern suburbs of Hobart such as Taroona, Dynnyrne and Sandy Bay but students also come from access schools in a wide range of other areas such as West Hobart and Blackmans Bay. The school opened in 1958. The school's most notable former student is Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark.

Facilities

Taroona High School features four building areas each with two or more levels:
Buses transporting students to and from school are operated by Metro Tasmania and Wisby Buses.

Public art works

Art at Taroona High School includes the International Orange mural painted in 2015 by Josh Foley. in 2011 in the Art for Public Buildings Scheme, a work called Chaos Theory was made in sandblasted glass and cut vinyl by Designhaus. The exterior of the building and logo thereon was painted by Dyson Painters using Wattyl Solagard.

Curriculum

Taroona High School is committed to transforming the learning environment of the school to promote innovation, creativity and excellence in all aspects of its operations. Mandatory subjects within the school vary depending on grade.
In its early years, sports included yachting as an option.

Taroona Primary School

Taroona High School participates a great deal with the Taroona Primary School, its neighbouring school, the two education facilities making up the Taroona Learning Complex. As a result, a large number of Taroona High students come from Taroona Primary School. The Taroona Learning Centre thus provides schooling from K - 10.

Feeder schools

Associated schools: Albuera Street, Mount Nelson, Princes Street, South Hobart, Taroona Primary, Waimea Heights.
Schools with access to Taroona High School: Campbell Street, Goulburn Street,
Lansdowne Crescent, Mount Stuart.

History

Lobbying for a high school south of Hobart to take students from Sandy Bay, Taroona, and the Channel district happened in 1952.
The school opened in 1958.
Funds from the commonwealth government were made available in 1968 to construct new science laboratories.
Nine students were hurt and hospitalized after an explosion following a reaction of sodium with water on 2 May 1985.
On 3 July 1990 two students and a teacher from the school drowned in Mystery Creek Cave near Lune River.
A new technology and design centre opened in 1995.
After someone started a fire with paper towels in the boys toilet, A block had to be evacuated on 9 October 2009.
School houses were called Crayfish, Gellibrand, Cartwright and Droughty after land prominences into the Derwent River.
Rhodes scholars from Taroona High are Michael Buchanan, Jessica Radford, Abishek Sharma, Alex Shabala
, Robert Hortle,, Bede Jones, and Brook Dambacher.
The school is planning to expand into years 11 and 12 with limited courses starting in the 2022 school year

Related organisations

There is a Taroona High School Council, Student Representative Council, Parents and Friends Association, Parents Auxiliary and Old Scholars Association. Taroona High School Association Inc.

Geography and geology

Taroona High School is located in Taroona on the shore of the Derwent River. A small sandy beach on the northeast side is called Dixons Beach. A creek runs in a north east direction north of the buildings and main oval, and meets the sea between the car park and the archery field. This is called School Creek. To the south of the school campus is its access road, Meath Avenue and Melinga Place. The rock beneath the school is Paleogene sandstone and conglomerate. A boulder bed formed in the Paleogene makes up the point. A bed of tuff just to the south of A block heads east-northeast to the coast and southwest inland. The whole region north from Belhaven Avenue to School Creek is unstable ground undergoing a slow moving landslide called "School Creek Landslide". This started hundreds of years ago before there were any buildings constructed. Movement to the northwest is happening, the tennis court moved about 40 mm in 11 years, and a survey marker near the road entrance has shifted 0.4 m since 1961. Several smaller landslips are parasitic or nearby. These are the Archery Field Landslip, north of the creek; the Dixons Beach Landslip and Carpark Landslip which moved a couple of meters in the late 1980s; and Channel Highway Landslip between the Channel Highway and the primary school. The soil in the area is highly reactive expanding and contracting with changes in water content. The situation is boing monitored with a real time inclinometer, and a vibrating wire piezometer, as well as survey markers and a GPS station to see where the school moves.

Notable alumni