Sunshine College is a multi campus school in Melbourne’s Inner West with responsibility for serving the educational needs of around 1000 young people.

The Sunshine community is wonderfully diverse, with a strong sense of pride and identity. Our college reflects this diversity with a wide range of programs aimed at fully addressing the learning needs of all students, with our successful mainstream programs being augmented by a deaf facility, an alternative setting, and other options, including the Harvester Technical College Sunshine, located adjacent to the North Campus of Sunshine College. The Harvester Technical College Sunshine through its teaching staff provides innovative best practice approaches in vocational education based around applied learning. We have developed strong links with major industries, Victoria University and Kangan-Batman TAFE in guiding the curriculum development and building relationships to support outcomes for students. Teachers at the HTC operate in a team environment, integrating curriculum around learning projects for a dynamic year 10-12 student cohort.

Teachers across all campuses of Sunshine College are expected to integrate seamlessly Numeracy and Literacy development into their teaching and learning practices and be creative of new and innovative approaches to teaching and learning, with an understanding that students learn best through discovery, research & development processes and especially when this learning is linked to applied situations.

Our student’s average growth rate in NAPLAN Reading and Numeracy from Year 7 to Year 9 is better than state averages.

A major and exciting challenge for us is to become one of the leading schools in Victoria on how literacy issues are positively addressed. All students in Years 7 to 11 are involved in the SunLit program. All staff at these year levels are involved in structured literacy lessons throughout the week, with a clear intent on making a meaningful and measurable difference in literacy attainment for students.
Our work in the SunLit program is being documented by the department so our approach can be shared with other schools in Victoria.

Numerous schools both primary and secondary have visited us, to look at our work on scaffolding maths for students in years 7-9. Maths staff are regular presenters at the Mathematics Association of Victoria where a number of schools have seen and adopted our “reciprocal teaching” approach to solving mathematics problems. In 2013 both The Age’s On-Line video section and the Channel 7 Today Tonight program have showcased the work we are doing in Numeracy.

Each year our students achieve high ATAR scores and have won the Premier’s Award and the VCE Achiever of the Year Award placing them among the top elite students in Victoria. Our VCE results are above the average for all government secondary schools in the Western Metropolitan Region and equal to the local non-government schools. The duxes of the school over the last years are studying Commerce, Law, Medicine, Engineering and Dentistry.

A highlight of the school year is SHINE, our performing arts evening which showcases the talents of students across all campuses and has become a major community event. The College supports the broader community in a number of ways through community curriculum initiatives, largely coordinated in our pathways courses run at Years 7 to 10.

We are committed to maximising learning outcomes and life opportunities for our students by providing high quality learning experiences which will empower them to continue to learn, adapt to changing circumstances, and create opportunities for themselves, while valuing self, others, and their environment. Our staffs believe all students can learn, given sufficient support. They work in supportive teams, are committed to continual personal and professional growth, and accept new educational challenges as a natural part of their professional lives.
Staff at Sunshine College have worked together to develop what we call a “core plus” instructional model that allows for domain specific innovation and creativity but is underpinned across all domains by five core instructional practice principles~

Our performance and development culture is based around the collaborative work of staff in professional learning teams. • Learning Intention articulated • Readiness for Learning determined • Activities that target individual success • Quality Feedback • Reflection

We believe that our teaching staff are by far the most valuable resource of the school. We know that it is our teachers who ultimately make the difference for students, and we support them accordingly. Our team successes are celebrated widely, and have included recognition in The Herald-Sun Teacher of the Year Awards.

The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office tabled a report in the Victorian Parliament titled “The Effectiveness of Student Wellbeing Programs and Services.” Sunshine College was chosen to talk to representatives of the VAGO about our programs, which have led to consecutive years of ‘exemplar’ results within the Victorian Student Attitudinal Surveys, placing consistently in the top 10% of secondary schools in Victoria.

Our performance and development culture is based around the collaborative work of staff in professional learning teams where curriculum is collegiately designed and consistently delivered across classrooms and campuses and where self-reflection is critical to enhancing the craft of teaching.

If this is a school you would like to be part of I would encourage you to formally apply for the position.
Apply via the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development “Recruitment onLine” process (link below).

Applicants will need to hold valid tertiary qualifications and be able to meet Victorian Institute of Teacher registration requirements.

Please note Sunshine College reserves the right to contact colleagues other than those listed as referees.

Yours sincerely,






http://www.education.vic.gov.au/hrweb/Pages/default.aspx