# Kelvin Grove State College

Kelvin Grove State College is a government primary secondary school in Kelvin Grove, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, three kilometres from Brisbane’s central business district and adjacent the Kelvin Grove campus of Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Some of the school's buildings are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.

## History

It was formed in 2002 with the amalgamation of Kelvin Grove State High School and Kelvin Grove State School and is one of the largest government educational institutions in Australia.
The amalgamation was an initiative of the Government of Queensland's Smart State initiative. The name was voted upon by students, staff and administration in 2001 from a selection of choices. Thus, the school became a P–12 (prep to year twelve) school for state enrolments. The amalgamation also created 3 sub schools; 'The Junior School' catering for grades prep to 5, 'The Middle School' catering for grades 6 to 9 and 'The Senior School' catering for grades 10 to 12.

## Schools of excellence

As of 2021, the College has a number of schools of excellence, which students can choose to extend their learning choices in a particular field. They are: (Year Levels available to)
* Engineering Technology School of Excellence (11–12)
* Queensland Aviation School of Excellence (10–12)
* Queensland Dance School of Excellence (7–9)
* Queensland Golf School of Excellence (4–12)
* Queensland Football School of Excellence (6–12)
* Queensland Tennis School of Excellence (5–12)
* Queensland Volleyball School of Excellence (6–12)
* Art and Design School of Excellence (11–12)
* Music School of Excellence (3–12)
* Queensland Senior Ballet Program (10–12)
Some limitations do apply to entry and an audition process is usually required to gain entry. All these schools of excellence are an extra cost to the free education provided by a state school. Limited scholarships are available to some applicants.
Isaka Cernak & Adam Sarota who play for Brisbane Roar as well as Robbie Kruse who plays for Melbourne Victory and Scott Higgins who is signed for Gold Coast United in the A-league are former students with KGSC's Football Excellence.
David Williams (footballer) is another former student of the Football Excellence. Williams now plays for The Wellington Phoenix has two caps for the Socceroos (Australian National Team).

## Arts

The Performing Arts Department offers courses in drama, dance and music with links to QUT’s "Creative Industries" program. Students can also expand their performing arts studies with the following specialised programs:
* Queensland Senior Ballet Program (QBSP) in partnership with Queensland Ballet (Years 10–12) QBSP is a comprehensive, part-time program which consists of four hours of dance training in the mornings and three hours of academic classes each weekday afternoon, with a further five hours of dance training on Saturdays.

## Sporting houses

There are four sporting houses at KGSC which were also the sporting houses of KGSHS:
* Herbert
* Lutwyche
* Petrie
* Bowen
The houses were originally based on the first letter surname, however, to even out the numbers in each house this has become less obvious. In previous years, members of Schools of Excellence were all placed in the same sporting house, however this was unfair on other houses and the policy was scrapped. The names of the houses are all derived from important persons in the development of Queensland. Many suburbs near the school are also named after these people, and so many students have come to believe that the houses are named after the suburbs.
The primary school used to have its own separate houses before amalgamation. They were Long (yellow), Bancroft (red) and Walker (Blue). Long and Walker were both long serving principals from the early years of KGSS, while Bancroft was a local person of importance.

## Notable alumni

* Viraat Badhwar – golfer
* Ashleigh Barty – tennis player
* Lori Cramer – rugby union player
* Michael Falzon – actor
* Kate Jones – Minister for Education of Queensland
* Kate Miller-Heidke – singer, songwriter and actress
* Bob McMaster – wrestler and rugby union/league player
* Scared Weird Little Guys - Rusty Berther - musician, comedian
* Andrew Stockdale – lead singer of the band Wolfmother
* Quan Yeomans – lead singer of the band Regurgitator

## Notable staff

* Benjamin Bell