Kingswood College has recently achieved a remarkable milestone, earning recognition as both a 5-Star Innovative School and a 5-Star Best School for 2025.
These prestigious accolades reflect what the Kingswood community has known for years: this is a school where 135 years of educational heritage seamlessly blends with bold, future-focused thinking.
Located in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, Kingswood College serves students from its Early Learning Centre through to Year 12, creating a cohesive educational journey grounded in five core values: respect, courage, kindness, perseverance, and excellence. These aren’t merely words on a wall. They’re lived principles that shape every interaction and decision within the College.
What truly distinguishes Kingswood is its commitment to empowering students as active participants in their own growth. The award-winning SEEK Learning Journey Plans exemplifies this philosophy, offering a comprehensive framework that combines academic and subject acceleration, enrichment opportunities, and targeted learning pathways. From Prep to Year 12, students don’t simply follow a predetermined path. They co-create their educational journeys through intentional planning meetings, cross-age collaboration, and goal-based mentoring.
The SEEK program represents a pioneering approach to gifted and highly able education, but its benefits extend to every student. Through SEEK reflections, students provide detailed insights on classroom differentiation and learning relevance, creating a powerful feedback integration loop that informs curriculum refinement across the entire school. This student voice doesn’t just shape individual experiences. It elevates teaching and learning for everyone.
Innovation at Kingswood isn’t imposed from above. It’s embedded in the school’s DNA. The SEEK Program itself evolved through collaborative design involving staff, students, and leadership, with regular review cycles ensuring continual refinement. Professional learning and shared insights make improvement a collective habit rather than an occasional initiative.
This culture of innovation is anchored by Principal Chrissy Gamble and the executive team, whose leadership is both visible and strategic. Their vision is guided by five pillars: Bold Expectations, Exceptional Staff, Strong Connections, Future Ready, and Sustainable Legacy. These pillars inform everything from curriculum design to community engagement, ensuring that innovation becomes systemic rather than sporadic.
The College’s Strategic Plan 2025-2029 reinforces this direction, prioritising data-driven teaching, staff excellence, and facilities designed around student-focused learning. Success is measured through comprehensive indicators: increased participation in competitions, individual student growth in assessments, higher levels of student goal articulation, reduced isolation among gifted learners, stronger peer networks, and improved differentiation practices across all year levels.
Looking ahead, Kingswood continues to refine the SEEK framework, redevelop facilities to support collaborative learning, and strengthen commitments to sustainability education and university partnerships. Every initiative remains firmly student-centred, anchored in purposeful learning and the belief that education should develop the whole person.
For 135 years, Kingswood College has emboldened hearts and inspired minds. These recent accolades confirm that this tradition of excellence shows no signs of slowing. If anything, it’s accelerating toward an even brighter future.
