Korowa Anglican Girls’ School

Tour Details

Tour took place on a Thursday morning at 10am

Tour commenced with a slide presentation in the library with the Principal Frances Booth

Presentation included two speakers – one from grade 5 and one from year 11

The visitors were then broken up into small groups of 3-4 guests with a few students taking each group

Our group was taken by year 11 student and two year 9 students

Korowa is located in the leafy green side streets of Glen Iris.  It’s location is very close to the South Eastern freeway and close to Glen Iris station.  Although it’s only one block away from both busy Burke Rd and High St, you could never tell once inside the school grounds. 

The school grounds have a peaceful feel.  Many of the buildings were multistorey so the rooms we walked through were above ground level and had a view of the large leafy green trees outside.  The school buildings are quite extensive inside with sections dedicated to music, arts, media, performing arts and a brand new well being centre with its own dance studio, yoga room and indoor swimming pool. 

My overall impression of Korowa is that it’s a place where many opportunities are offered for girls and they are strongly encouraged to participate in school life.  There seem to be a myriad of extra curricular activities involving sports, music, dance and performing arts.  In year 9 the Trek / Quest program seems to be a major event designed to be physically and mentally challenging.    

According to the students the extracurricular activities eg sporting teams, art performances etc are always in need of students to join so there is no lack of opportunity to participate.  The year 11 student at the presentation spoke of participating in the school dance performance several years in a row even though she doesn’t think she’s any good at dance.  She said jokingly that she is in the back row and only this year was promoted to second back row, but loves participating anyway.  This seems to be a running theme where girls are encouraged to participate whether or not they deem themselves to be “good” at that particular activity. 

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According to the Principal, there is a lot of research indicating that girls do better at girls schools as they feel comfortable participating in everything from sport to performances to science.  Academics wise, there does seem to be a focus of STEM and science and math subjects are well subscribed to by students with two physics classes and several chemistry classes this year in the high levels. 

The Principal Frances Booth is a new Principal at Korowa having been there only one year.  She has apparently replaced a retiring Principal according to the student tour guide.  Frances initially gave me the impression that she is fairly traditional and old school being from an older generation and speaking with an English accent.  She reminded me of my old high school Principal who I found rather terrifying and humourless ( note to self: please refrain from being so judgemental ). 

However, I got the chance to have a short exchange with her after the official tour and was relieved to find that my initial impression was somewhat wrong.  She was friendly and warm and smiled easily, saying that she’s not interested in creating “good girls” and too many women feel the need to be “good” in society.  This attitude is reflected in what she said about enrolment at Korowa ( more below ).   

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In her presentation, Frances spoke about how wellbeing and achievement go hand in hand.  She said the school is small and intimate enough for the teachers to know the students well – well enough for them to cut them some slack when there are issues outside of school affecting their performance and well enough for them to give them a push if they are ‘just cruising’. 

She said the teachers know that well being is at the forefront of everything they do at Korowa. 

Two very impressive students stood up a gave presentations afterwards about their experience at Korowa.  One only from grade 5 and another from year 11.  More than what they said, it was the fact that the students were able to get up and give a speech to an audience of parents that was impressive. 

I asked the Principal about enrolling into secondary school at Korowa. She said that each year 48 students come up from Korowa primary school and another 50 or so students are taken in from outside primary schools. 

Two years prior to entry, the students are interviewed and offered a place.  She said that the year I would be looking at ( 2028 for year 7 ) is wide open.  I asked what they look for during the interview.  Frances answered that it is important that the families and students will fit into the Korowa community.  They don’t look at NAPLAN results.  According to Frances, Korowa is a place where girls are nurtured and encouraged to try a lot of things outside academics and encouraged to find themselves.  It’s important that families share these similar values and education is not seen as just about getting a high ATAR.

Judging from where Korowa ranks on the Better Education site, academics are a strong focus at Korowa.  I asked the students if they felt pressured by the school and they denied this.  They said there is academic pressure, but it comes from their peers and being among high achieving students.   

STEM seemed to be a big focus.  We walked past some what looked like very well equipped science labs complete with 3D printers.  The students and presentation spoke about the F1 club where students build an F1 racing car and compete against other schools, coding electives in Year 9.

I asked the Year 11 student if Korowa offered VM as well as VCE and she said she’d never heard of it.  Safe to say if they do offer it it’s not many students take it.  She said that Korowa was primarily academic and didn’t offer subjects like woodworking.

We walked past the food studies kitchen and were informed that food studies is compulsory in year 7 and 8.

Languages offered at Korowa are French, Japanese, Chinese and German.  German is studied in primary school. 

Trek is a one month expedition undertaken in year 9.  The trek starts from Mansfield and the girls hike, bike, canoe over the highlands.  It sounds like a pretty serious hiking trip where girls carry their camping gear for the entire month and food is dropped to them every few days.  The Year 11 student said it was challenging but loved it and the two year 9 girls on the tour who would be embarking on the trip soon said they were both looking forward to it. 

Trek is optional.  The alternative ( less intense option ) is “Quest” which is also a month of activities but more day trips and a then a week in South Australia.  The girls said most students chose Trek despite it being more intense, but a good proportion chose Quest as well. 

Mobile phone policy at Korowa Anglican Girls’ School

In the younger years ( years 7-10? ), mobile phone policy is stricter.  Girls aren’t allowed to access their phone during school hours and they must remain inside lockers. 

In the senior years ( years 11-12 ), girls are allowed to have phones with them.  They aren’t allowed to use them in class, but can access them during breaks.  The senior student said that mobile phone policy isn’t that strict but it can depend on which teacher. 

The girls on the tour were very well presented.  However, they said the uniform policy wasn’t that strict at Korowa.  There is also option to wear pants which apparently is a relatively new change. 

Korowa is part of GSV.

There seem to be an abundance of sports on offer and facilities to encourage the girls into sport.  Sports mentioned by the students included rowing and softball.  The new Sports and Wellbeing Center features an indoor pool, dance studio, yoga studio, gym equipment, indoor gymnasium as well as a rooftop netball court.   

All students must know how to swim to participate in the swimming carnival.  Yoga classes are held for staff and students before school!

One difference that I haven’t seen in other schools is dance as a subject is compulsory in Year 7.

In year 7 students learn an instrument in the classroom.  Although we toured the music rooms, there were a lot of tour groups in the area so we didn’t go right in.  I asked if they do overseas trips as some other schools do.  Apparently they don’t, but they have some interstate tours for the choral group. 

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There seem to be a lot of art opportunities on offer.  We toured a number of rooms in the art area with quite a lot of ceramics and images on display.  Art subjects mentioned included ceramics, photography and textiles. 

Korowa is an Anglican school and there is a chapel on site.  The students on the tour assured me that religion is not a big part of their education and they don’t do any religion classes.  The Chapel may be used at Easter and Christmas but has been used for other things like vaccinations! 

Frances said that wellbeing is paramount to everything they do at Korowa.  There is a school psychologist and two wellbeing dogs – Ivy the adorable black lab and another who wasn’t there on the day.  Students have two wellbeing sessions per week in the lower years.  The new Sports and Wellbeing centre has an area dedicated to wellbeing. 

Worth mentioning that they celebrated Wear It Purple Day recently. 

Clubs mentioned include:

• LGBTQI
• F1
• Environment
• Social services
• Art

Clubs are teacher and student lead.  Students can also suggest to start a club. 

I asked what the students liked and disliked about the school.  While they were hesitant to come up with any negatives, they did say a few which I think is a good thing.

( Paraphrased )

“ My favourite part is the house competitions.  They are really fun, and there’s a real competitive spirit. “

“ We just had the house swimming carnival.  It’s compulsory, so everyone needs to have a go.  I swam in a number of races and came last in every one, but it didn’t matter!”

“ My favourite part is the music opportunities we have.  I started learning the clarinet in primary school here and really like the ensembles”

“ The oval is a bit small now because the new Sports center takes up a lot of space”

“ There can be a bit of academic pressure, but it’s not the school, mostly the other high achieving students you’re with.”  

My impression of Korowa is that girls are given a huge variety of opportunities to participate in sport, art, dance, performance as well as other experiences like Trek / Quest and also some other camps and travels.  Although the school doesn’t have a sprawling campus with huge ovals like some of the other private schools, its buildings are well equipped with  facilities, some very luxurious like the dance and yoga studios. 

Despite Korowa being one of the highest achieving schools in terms of academics, I got the impression that students are very strongly encouraged and challenged to give things outside of study a go, even if they don’t feel they are “good” at them. 

I believe in this world where women are anxious to appear ‘perfect’, this is a great attitude to instil into girls during education – that you don’t have to be perfect, or even good at something to give it a try.

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Crystal Wong

Crystal Wong is an SEO Consultant, digital marketer and founder of Melbourne Schools.

Mum to the best little girl. Lover of cats, coffee and books.

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