Perth Modern School | |
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French: Savoir C'est Pouvoir
Knowledge is Power
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Location | |
Subiaco, W.A Australia |
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Coordinates | 31°56′42″S 115°50′16″E / 31.9450°S 115.8377°ECoordinates: 31°56′42″S 115°50′16″E / 31.9450°S 115.8377°E |
Information | |
Type | Selective, Day & Boarding School, Public |
Established | 1911 |
Principal | Lois Joll |
Gender | Co-educational |
Enrolment | 1049 (7 Aug 2014) |
Campus | Urban |
Colour(s) | Blue, yellow, green and red |
Website | perthmodern |
Perth Modern School is an academically selective co-educational public high school located in Subiaco, an inner city suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The school, established in 1911, caters for students with high academic ability.
In 2010 The Age reported that Perth Modern ranked equal fourth among Australian schools based on the number of alumni who had received a top Order of Australia honour since 1975. Fourteen Perth Modernians have won Rhodes Scholarships from the University of Western Australia.
Students of Perth Modern School are called "Perth Modernians" or "Modernians" for short.
Perth Modern School was the first government high school in Western Australia . The school opened in 1911. Students were prepared for entry to the University of Western Australia, which opened in 1913. The school charged a fee of £6 a year. Demand for places at the school was high. Students came from all over Perth and Western Australia, many staying with relatives or boarding as near to the school as possible. In 1912, the school inaugurated a system of scholarships designed to encourage students of ability to attend regardless of the financial situation of their parents. Students studied comprehensive science and modern languages as part of their courses, in addition to classical subjects.
Central to the establishment of the school was Cecil Andrews. As a young man, Andrews was Inspector General of Schools in Western Australia and he had the honour of naming the school and of directing the school curriculum. The first principal of the school, Ferdinand Granger Brown, helped the school to a start and he was succeeded in 1912 by Joseph Parsons who led the school until 1939.
Throughout its history the school has been at the forefront of state education. Perth Modern School pioneered two modern and entirely new concepts in Western Australian education. One was the concept of co-education and the other was that there was to be no corporal punishment, no detention, and no punishment arbitrary or authoritative.