School Visit Program

Take the opportunity while in Melbourne to sign up to one of the optional school tours, allowing you insight into what your independent sector colleagues are up to in their schools.

Places on these tours are strictly limited and often book out. Please select the tour you wish to attend when completing your online registration.

Transfers to and from the schools will operate from the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Tour 1



Camberwell Girls Grammar School

During the tour of Camberwell Girls’ Grammar School, delegates will visit both our Junior School and Senior School. Delegates will be interested to visit the Junior School Building which was recently voted “Best Designed Primary School in the World”. In the Senior School, delegates will visit our acclaimed Library which recently hosted the YABBA Conference and also our expansive Makerspace. Engaging with a design thinking framework, students have the freedom in the Makerspace to explore ideas and work through projects using a wide variety of digital technologies, tools and materials.




Carey Baptist Grammar School

Founded in 1923, Carey is a co-educational, independent, Christian school for students from 3-year-old kindergarten to year 12. Located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne on two campuses in Kew (ELC-Year 12) and Donvale (ELC-Year 6), the current enrolment is 2300 students. 

The school's open-entry policy, commitment to maintaining a whole-school 50:50 gender ratio and inclusive ethos create an environment in which all students have the opportunity to flourish. Despite operating in a most competitive market, Carey enjoys very strong enrolment demand and healthy waitlists for boys and girls.

The tour will entail a stroll through our Centre for Learning & Innovation where the colour palate, spaces and furniture has been selected with a cooeducational cohort in mind. 

Tour 2



Melbourne Grammar School

Melbourne Grammar School has a tradition of excellence extending on our South Yarra campus for more than 160 years. Their facilities underpin the strong learning culture of the School. The Middle and Senior School campus showcases an interesting blend of the past and the present, with most buildings being visually contemporaneous of their time, but intentionally sympathetic to the campus heritage and identity. From the 126-year old bluestone Chapel of St Peter, to the new six storey, award winning, Geoff Handbury Science and Technology Hub completed in 2018, their infrastructure provides a unique, purposeful learning environment. They also seek to extend their students’ learning outside the classroom through the judicious placement of break-out learning spaces, artworks, including an open-air art gallery (currently in early stages) and important artefacts from their Archives.




Melbourne Girls Grammar School

Melbourne Girls Grammar is a progressive, contemporary school which has delivered education for girls from Early Learning to year 12 for more than 125 years. Their programs are led by a team of educators who challenge and maximise the potential of each and every girl. The school boasts outstanding facilities across two purpose-built and thoughtfully designed campuses. State-of-the-art technology, flexible learning spaces and special interest centres allow their girls to explore the contemporary curriculum freely, in support of their learning and development. 

Tour 3



Firbank Grammar School

Dulled by soundproofing, the Music Precinct hums with the echoes of strings and pianos, percussion and choirs. Each room is dedicated to bringing the best out of our students with acoustics purpose-built to enhance the sounds that they create. Our students work hard in multiple disciplines, some have been recognised for their gifts in competitions both here in Australia and internationally; some are new and at the beginning stages of their music journey. Firbank’s new Music Precinct welcomes them all.

The Music Precinct is open to all students and encourages a greater love of the art of music. Students from our Junior Schools also use the area for lessons and many form a connection with the Music Program that stays with them throughout their schooling. There are seven teaching rooms plus the recital hall, choir room and music theory classrooms which enhances the School’s capabilities across music mediums and allows for greater sectional teaching and the implementation of orchestras. Firbank’s Choral Program and ‘Bel Canto’ choir has been a tradition at our School for many years. The Precinct will help to maintain our current high standards, improve our offerings and excite new students into joining the Choral Program. The Music Precinct colours the way people see the music program and gives our students a greater feeling of enjoyment and a sense of possibility for their music.

We would love to invite you to experience it.

Brighton Grammar School

Founded in 1882 in the bayside area of Melbourne, Brighton Grammar is committed to the BGS Way of effective learning for over 1380 boys from ELC-Year 12.  Brighton Grammar is renowned for its whole school wellbeing program specifically tailored for boys. The focus of the tour will be to show delegates two purpose built spaces that facilitate our approach to wellbeing as well as a discussion as to how this lives within the culture of the school. Aspects of the wellbeing program include daily mindfulness sessions for all Junior School students that can take place in the purpose built Wellbeing Centre. In the Annandale Pavilion, Secondary School students work on improving their wellbeing skills using Bio-Dash, a world first gamified approach using biofeedback and co-developed with The University of Melbourne.  The School’s Crowther Centre is driving culture-building programs and a positive masculinity framework for students. 


Mentone Grammar School

A tour of Mentone Grammar will include the Creativity Centre which houses the resources for Visual Art, Drama, Dance, Music, Food Technology, Robotics and 3D printing along with materials technology. The building also includes a 450 seat theatre. It is a fully integrated facility which attempts, successfully, to ensure that the various spaces work in synch with one another.
Year 5/6 Learning Centre which is a conversion of an old gym into a highly contemporary learning centre. Resources include classrooms spaces, a film studio and editing booths, and a range of learning lounges all serving the different needs of students in the facility.
Year 9 Learning Centre which is a stand-alone campus within the School serving the needs of our 200 Year 9 boys and girls. It is innovative in its scope and since the development of the building and associated program, which includes the students run café, our academic data on the Year level has improved considerably.

Tour 4


Strathcona Girls Grammar School
We warmly invite you to tour and experience the vibrant community at Strathcona. Founded in 1924 Strathcona educates girls from Prep to Year 12 and is coeducational within our Early Learning Centre. Located across three campuses; Senior School, Junior School and our heritage protected Year 9 campus in Hawthorn, Tay Creggan, Strathcona delivers a balanced, holistic education offering students and families an engaged and vibrant community. 

This tour will showcase our Tay Creggan Campus, Melbourne’s first independent Year 9 girls campus established in 1969, and include our science laboratory, the Learning Lounge (library) and Commercial kitchen. The close proximity of the main school campus enables Year 9 girls to continue their participation in inter-school sport, choirs and instrumental ensembles. These contemporary facilities support a strong academic community of learning for girls with a high proportion entering tertiary studies in STEM.



St Catherine's School

St Catherine’s School is an all-girls school, with approximately 750 students from ELC to Year 12.  St Catherine’s School fosters learning through critical and creative thinking, providing students with broad knowledge of the wider world as well as in-depth study in specific areas of interest.  St Catherine’s School fosters the development and learning of the whole child, through academic and co-curricular opportunities and an integrated wellbeing program. The School is committed to empowering and nurturing independent globally responsive students who approach all endeavours with empathy, integrity, commitment and determination.

The Tour will showcase the new Junior School, known as Barbreck, opened in 2018, which is home to a dedicated STEM Laboratory, a Language Centre and a state of the art Library. The Senior School Tour will include the six new Science laboratories and the refurbished Year 10- 12 building, including the Library. 

Tour 5



Trinity Grammar School, Kew

The Richard and Elizabeth Tudor Centre for Contemporary Learning is placed in the centre of the campus and defines the campus' main central plaza space to its north and is flanked by the campus sport field to the south. The building entry flows onto the plaza.

The centrepiece of the building is a large open 2 level space containing a series of interlinked, usually open, platforms & spaces connected by a continuous spiral ramp. Inside this ramp is an oval shaped display platform over an enclosed oval shaped closed seminar space at the bottom level. This is flanked to the outside by reference resource spaces, a dual height breakout space complete with large screen and a tiered A/V instructional space called 'the Steps'.  The Centre's administrative spaces and workshops are also on this bottom level. Proceeding up the spiral ramp, there is a series of varied informal learning environments, from more secluded private study & recreational nooks to a more open café space ‘Libresso’ ideal for casual collaboration. Architect, Peter McIntyre and his team provided Trinity with a facility which excites and energises with light, space, line and colour, but one which is, in its own right, a piece of art. The building sets a new benchmark in School architecture and is recognised by the wider educational world. 

Overall, the Richard and Elizabeth Tudor Centre for Contemporary Learning at Trinity Grammar School in Kew demonstrates an interesting approach to creating a casual and contemporary learning environment.

Ruyton Girls' School

Ruyton Girls’ School is an independent, forward thinking K-12 girls' school committed to preparing girls for a lifetime of learning, leadership and engagement in our global community.

Ruyton’s unique Co-ordinate Education Program with Trinity Grammar School provides co-educational learning opportunities for Years 11 and 12. The Program has run successfully for over 25 years. Co-educational classes are held at both Ruyton and Trinity campuses in all learning areas. 

During this tour you will have the opportunity to hear about learning at Ruyton, including the Co-ordinate Education program. We will visit the award winning Margaret McRae Centre comprising Science, our Year 7 and 8 Centre, Drama and Events, and our recently redeveloped Junior School, and share with you the vision for our Performing Arts Centre and Library precinct, with building to commence later this year.

Tour 6

Aitken College

Aitken College is a low-fee, co-educational P-12 school in association with the Uniting Church in Australia. We have a large, semi-rural property in the outer northern suburbs. Aitken College was established in 1999. Our students enjoy a beautiful campus with state-of-the-art performing arts, technology and kitchen garden facilities. A hallmark of education at Aitken is our warm, friendly culture where all students are welcomed and nurtured. 


Overnewton Anglican Community College

Overnewton Anglican Community College is an affordable fee, dual campus, co-educational, Anglican School offering education from Prep to Year 12. Our Yirramboi Campus at Keilor, opened in 1987 in direct response to community need for accessible quality education in the north west of Melbourne with our second campus, Canowindra at Taylors Lakes, opening in 1996.

The College is organised into Junior School (Preparatory – Year 4, Canowindra Campus), Middle School (Years 5 - 8, Yirramboi Campus), Year 9 (Canowindra Campus), and Senior School (Years 10 - 12, Yirramboi Campus). Each School has its own Head of School and its own Parent Support Team and is functionally self-contained. The structure gives a small school community intimacy to the entire College and is supported by our large school facilities, large VCE subject choice and support services.