Rossmoyne Senior High School

Construction of Rossmoyne SHS commenced in 1967 on land that was owned by the Webb family who originally came from Scotland. It opened for students the following year (1968). The name Rossmoyne has no connection with the area but was thought to be suitable for marketing a subdivision in the area.[3] Over the years the student catchment areas for Rossmoyne SHS were from Lynwood, Willetton, Riverton, Shelley, Bull Creek,[4] Ferndale, southern end of Mount Pleasant, Booragoon and Brentwood. Now Rossmoyne SHS has restricted its mainstream intake to students from Rossmoyne, parts of Bull Creek[4] and Willetton, Riverton, Shelley, Brentwood and Bateman, although it also runs a GAT (Gifted And Talented) programme for academically gifted students. Students from years seven to year ten (inclusive) are required to study a foreign language, with a choice of Chinese, German, French, and Japanese.[5][6]

Its location, Keith Road, is named after Rossmoyne's original Head Boy, who died after a traffic incident.

A student tested positive for tuberculosis in 2007, causing the school to offer free screening to the rest of the student population. Information about the disease was also sent home to parents. No further students were reported of having the disease.[7]

A fire at the school caused A$500,000 worth of damage in 2008. The blaze destroyed a double demountable classroom with furniture and computer equipment, the arson squad were investigating the cause.[8]

The original section of the school is made up of several two storey buildings that together make a "H" shape. The administration block is on the northern side. Humanities & Social Sciences are on the western side. Home Economics, Woodwork, Metalwork and Arts are on the eastern side. Coming in from Keith Road, is an oval where students have Physical Education classes and the Performing Arts Centre, opened in 2004.[9] At the southern side of the school there is a tennis court with basketball hoops, gymnasium, swimming pool and recently installed beach volleyball courts.[10] Underneath the gymnasium is a dance studio which has female and male change-rooms. In the centre lies the library.

The School is also currently undergoing extensive reconstruction with plans to rebuild the school entirely in Four Stages. The Science Building was completed 2007[9] to provide more rooms for the core subject of sciences. This block, along with the Performing and Visual Arts Centre (PVAC for short), was part of Stage 1 of the Building Plan.

In 2012, Stage 2 of the Building Plan was completed, which involved a new English and Languages block, a tiered Amphitheatre, a new cafeteria known as "Pereira's Cafe" and an extension of the Performing Arts Centre.[11][12] On the other side of the school an international-sized soccer field was laid out on the land that was formerly occupied by the ageing demountable buildings. A Health and Well-being Centre was built in 2013 which is considered an extension to the Gymnasium.

Other than these new buildings, Current Visual Arts Classrooms (Room 50 and 53) were converted to normal classrooms and there was landscaping to the new courtyards. A Selection Panel consisting of parents, community and school representatives has selected an artist who has been commissioned to design and install art works for the new building: including an extensive feature screen on the proposed colonnade connecting the new buildings.[13]

As of 2013, construction of Stage 3 is underway, which involved building a block for Year 7s[9] in preparation of their move from primary to high school in 2015. A new access road from the Apsley Road/Karel Avenue intersection, with student 'drop-off' zone, and bus zone was also added. Since 2017, the year 7 building has been relabelled as the mathematics building, seeing use from all year levels.[10]

As of 2019, all classrooms were appropriately renamed to indicate their location, in an effort to facilitate navigation for students. Year 9s have been relocated to the west side of the school. In addition, the Year 8s and 10s have been relocated to a single quadrangle together. Room D33 has been demolished to make way for rooms OB1 and OB2.

In 2001, the school was named The Australian newspaper's School Of The Year,[14] ahead of one of the country's most exclusive private schools - Methodist Ladies' College in Melbourne. The newspaper reported:

"The school has the strongest Tertiary Entrance Examination result of any government school in Western Australia. It also boasts an outstanding reputation in music, and has trumped the state championships in athletics for the past 16 years. That high level of overall achievement was why Rossmoyne was selected by a panel of six education experts for inclusion in our series."

In the 2009 Western Australian Tertiary Entrance Examinations, Rossmoyne SHS had more students with a tertiary entrance rank of 99.95%, the highest possible rank, than any other school in the state.[15]

The school has performed consistently well in the WACE school rankings and is often the best performing amongst all of the public schools in the state.

Beazley Medal

In 2017, Isabel Longbottom won the Beazley Medal for the top ranked WACE student.

Rossmoyne Senior High School's principal is Milanna Heberle.[26]

Assisting the principal are four Associate Principals: Pat Young (Year 7/8/9), Charmaine Ford (Years 10/11/12), Peter Lillywhite (Quality teaching and workforce), Peter Klifunis (Operations) and Mr Swami (Operations). .[26]

Below them is the Student Services team, which consists of six-year coordinators - one each for Years 7 - 12 - two nurses, two chaplains and two psychologists. There is also an Education Assistance team which is a subset of Student Services, to assist educationally disadvantaged students.

• List of schools in the Perth metropolitan area

• Rossmoyne SHS Website