Who We Are

Together, we are Ballarat Clarendon College. We help students discover who they are, who they want to be and how to get there. Our core values underpin all that we do and are embedded in every endeavour we undertake.

Who we are

Focus

Our focus is the students, their learning and progress. Clarendon commits to optimising student progress to ensure that students maximise their competence, skills and capacity so that, when the time comes, they can choose their heart’s desire.

Who We Are

Values

Our core values – learning, effort, responsibility, community and wellbeing – define the behaviours and attitudes by which we hold ourselves and each other to account. We believe that learning is incremental and all within our community must embrace possibilities and challenges in order to progress; that effort is non-negotiable; and that with persistence comes success.

Our values

Who We Are

Leadership

Our history

As the fifth oldest private school in Victoria, we proudly celebrate our history in providing high quality education.

Reverend William Henderson opened Ballarat College on Wednesday 6 July 1864 when two seven-year-old cousins presented themselves at his church, St Andrew’s Presbyterian. On the following Monday morning they were joined by three other boys to become the first students of the school.

Elizabeth Kennedy, the wife of another Presbyterian minister, came to Ballarat to live and in 1876 she began a cottage school for her children and the daughters of family friends. This was the beginning of what became known as Mrs Kennedy’s School for Girls, later to become Clarendon Presbyterian Ladies College.

In 1974 Ballarat College and Clarendon Presbyterian Ladies College formally joined together to become Ballarat Clarendon College, now associated with the Uniting Church in Australia.

2024 marks 160 years since the establishment of Ballarat College.

Whilst much has changed in this time, the vision and values of Reverend Henderson and Mrs Kennedy remain. Students, in another age, still acknowledge the guidance, support and inspiration they receive from being members of the Ballarat Clarendon College community.

Student Outcomes

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