St Michael's Grammar School is an Australian independent Anglican co-educational primary and secondary day school located in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, Victoria.
St Michael's was founded in 1895 by the Community of the Sisters of the Church and remains in its original location on a single campus. The School is associated with the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and is a member of the Association of Coeducational Schools (ACS) and the Junior School Heads Association of Australia.
The school educates students from 3-year-old kindergarten to the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), which all Year 12 students at St Michael's complete.
Contents
History
Foundation
In 1870, Mother Emily Ayckbowm founded the Community of the Sisters of the Church, a new Anglican religious order. The order was invited to Australia to further educational work for girls, and St Michael's was one of six schools established in different parts of Australia. They also founded schools in England, New Zealand and Canada. The schools, known as The Emily Group, share the same crest, patron saint and founding narrative, however, they all differ in significant ways, which enriches the group’s diversity. St Michael’s is the sole coeducational school in the group. On 23 April 1895, in Marlton Crescent, St Kilda, the Sisters opened an advanced primary school: The Church of England Day School (now St Michael's).
20th century
In 1972, St Michael’s Church of England Girls Grammar School Pty Ltd (later a company limited by guarantee) was established in 1972 to manage the School. The idea was put forward to make the school co-educational. In 1974 a coeducation subcommittee was established, and the School embarked on its coeducational journey. In 1980, with the appointment of a new Headmaster, Anthony Hewison, the decision was taken to admit boys to all levels of the school, thus making it fully coeducational, and to embark on modernising the school.
21st century
With the arrival of Headmaster Simon Gipson in the year 2000, the School administration adopted new approaches, including introducing modern terminology, a new school uniform, and a six-stage building plan, including the Sisters of the Church Learning Centre and the new playing surface for the oval.
On 6 December 2007, St Michael's purchased the Astor Theatre building in St Kilda. The cinema continued to operate as usual, with films screening at nights and on weekends, while the building was often used by the school for assemblies and events on weekdays. On 24 August 2012 the school announced that it had sold the building to Ralph Taranto.
The sisters have retained their interest in the school but no longer play a part in its governance. The school is managed by a Head who is appointed by a board of directors.
Academics
St Michael's offers a wide range of subjects including core mathematics, science, English, IT, LOTEs (Languages Other Than English), arts and humanities courses. At primary level, all students study basic subjects including mathematics, English, science, geography, history, Japanese, music and sport. The school is renowned for its Performing Arts program.
Sport
St Michael's is a member of the Association of Coeducational Schools (ACS).
ACS premierships
St Michael's has won the following ACS premierships since 1998.
OVERALL CHAMPIONS: (9) 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Sport Carnivals:
Swimming (14) – 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Athletics (10) – 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016
Cross Country (7) – 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Combined:
Badminton (6) – 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2012
Beach Volleyball (2) – 2013, 2017
Chess (6) – 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2021, 2022
Public Speaking (4) – 2005, 2008, 2020, 2022
Boys:
Basketball – 2008, 2022
Cricket (4) – 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003
Football (2) – 1998, 2012
Hockey (8) – 2000, 2002, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023
Soccer – 2013
Softball (5) – 2000, 2006, 2008, 2013, 2017
Table Tennis (10) – 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015
Performing arts
Each year the school puts on productions, including Years 10 to 12 senior musical; the Years 7 to 9 musical and play; Dance Project (a contemporary dance production); a student production; a house drama festival and three yearly senior productions (Year 6, Years 7–9, Years 10–12). In 2001, St Michael's was the first school to stage a production at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre with the performance of Les Misérables. The 2010 senior musical, 13, was the Australian premiere of the musical and won the best production award at the Victorian Musical Theatre Guild awards (the fourth St Michael's musical to do so).
The St Michael's 2025 10-12 Quadrant's GREASE: The Musical has been recognised by the Music Theatre Guild of Victoria (MTGV) with 16 nominations and commendations.
St Michael's also conducts an annual house drama competition, and an annual house singing & aerobics competition, in which all five of the school houses perform a musical item. Many other musical ensembles perform regularly throughout the year, including the 7–12 Harrison Choir, which each year performs a large choral work, and the Grigoryan Orchestra (named for school alumnus, classical guitarist Slava Grigoryan).
In 2025, the school apologised for the descriptions of pupils in a cast list distributed to parents. Principal Gerard Houlihan addressed the issue in a radio interview.
School of Rock
St Michael's has a "School of Rock" program, where students in Years 7–12 are mentored by rock musicians, leading to public performances and recordings.
The program is notable for being the origin of the Cheeky Geezers, a local rock band.
Social service and charity work
The school is involved in social service, working to raise money for various charities.
Once or twice a term, a Community Action Day is held, organised by the social service captains of each house, to raise money for a diverse number of charities. Every year in May, a prefect-organised program, the 'Merry Month of May', is held to raise money for social initiatives.
House system
The Junior School Houses (Years K–6) are Moss, Woods, Marlton and Cintra.
The Senior School Houses (Years 7–12) are Mitre, Sarum, Hughes, Kilburn and Breen. Mitre, Sarum, Hughes and Kilburn are the four original school houses and were all created in 1922, all significant for their own reasons. When the school started to grow a fifth senior school house, Breen was created in 1987. The pastoral care system is based on a house structure which deals with all matters relating to a student's wellbeing or curriculum needs. Each student is placed in a house tutorial group which is overseen by a house tutor. There are five houses and therefore five house tutorial groups at each year level. A house contains students from Years 7 to 12. Each house is led by two co-heads. The members of each house are led by co-house captains and co-vice-captains. The houses meet on a regular basis.
The house tutor and heads of house work as a team to monitor the academic and personal progress of each student in the house tutorial group and house. Generally, the house tutor is the first and main point of contact between the parent and the school.
School leaders
Principal
The following individuals have served as the school principal:
Head of the school
The following individuals have served as the head of the school or any previous title:
Notable alumni
Marjorie McQuade, represented Australia at the 1948 Summer Olympics at London and the 1952 Summer Olympics at Helsinki
Marie Breen, politician
Philip Dalidakis, politician
Slava Grigoryan, guitarist
Joy Hester, artist
Isabel Huntington, footballer and former AFL Women's No. 1 draft pick
Asher Keddie, actress
Samantha Lane, TV presenter
Faith Leech, Olympic swimmer, gold and bronze medalist at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia
Andrew MacLeod, former United Nations humanitarian expert and former CEO of the Committee for Melbourne
Eloise Mignon, actress
Radha Mitchell, actress
Frances Newson, hockey player
Anna O'Byrne, singer
Jan Skubiszewski, member of Jackson Jackson
Dan Spielman, actor
Nora Sumberg, artist
Brodie Summers, Olympic Mogul skier and World Cup silver medalist
Winnie Laing, AFL Women's footballer
Sean Wroe, Australian sprinter, silver medalist in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India. Wroe also represented Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.