Programs and partnerships

• Learning is not limited to the classroom. The beliefs, expectations and experience of parents are a powerful determinant in students' achievements. We understand that school, home and community contributions towards student learning helps cultivate a holistic learning environment.

  At Varsity College we believe in:

  • supporting parents to be positively involved with their child's learning at home and at school.
  • leveraging community, industry and business knowledge and skills.
  • developing partnerships with parents and the community that can deliver more innovative models of partnership development, education and training.
  • staff understanding and learning about students, including their home and community contributions, their culture and experiences.
  • accessing support from local institutions to support real world learning opportunities for students.
    
    Our primary campus partnerships include:
  • building relationships with local early years services.
  • practical literacy and numeracy activities that involve parents in key priority areas, such as reading through our weekly Parent Education Sessions, newsletters and year level information sessions.
  • parent/teacher workshops targeting identified areas of need such as student resilience, literacy and numeracy professional development and weekly staff learning lounges.
  • involving parents in goal setting and monitoring discussions with their children.
  • culture and learning by partnering with elders in educational experiences e.g. Grandparents Day and Aunty Joyce.
  • developing local strategies to support transitions between early childhood education and care, primary school and secondary school, higher education and the workforce.
    
    Our secondary campus partnerships include:
  • building relationships with feeder primary schools.
  • Guidance officers for wellbeing aligned with Headspace, Bond University, and Lives Lived Well.
  • Guidance officers for career pathways aligned with Griffith University, Southern Cross University, University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Bond University and Gold Coast Institute of TAFE.
  • the Practical Arts Department aligned with Bond University Architectural Unit.
  • a Creative Arts Department which engages with Artists in Residence with Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre Company, Zeal Physical Theatre Company and The Farm visit to perform and workshop with our students. As well as the Musical, Gold Coast Secondary Schools Dramafest, Eisteddfod, Energies Exhibition, Creative Generation Excellence in Visual Art Awards regional exhibition and Creative Generation Excellence Awards in Music (MOST).
  • a Physical Education Department which engages with Bond University and Bond Institute of Health Science, Momentum Sport Performance Centre, Gold Coast TAFE - Cert III in Fitness, Gold Coast Suns, Gold Coast Titans, Qld Oztag, Para-Olympian Basketball, Griffith University, Badminton Qld and Heartbeat Rockers (Rock n Roll Dancing).
  • a Science/Mathematics Department which engages with Griffith University Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Ambassador program and also interacts with their 'Science on the GO' outreach department for a number of events.

Community collaboration