The John Monash Science School is a government-funded co-educational academically selective and specialist secondary

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...

, located on the campus of

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

, in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Victoria, Australia. The school specialises in science and technologies and is the state's first specialist science secondary school. A joint venture between the

Government of Victoria The Victoria State Government, also referred to as the Victorian Government, is the Executive (government), executive government of the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. As a parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutiona ...

and Monash University, the school opened in 2009 with one Year 10 class; and as of 2010 it was running at its full capacity of approximately 660 students. The school is named in honour of Sir John Monash.

Overview

It is one of three recently built selective high schools in Victoria alongside Suzanne Cory High School and Nossal High School. The addition of these schools are the result of a policy of expansion, and doubles the number of fully selective government schools in Victoria. Prior to these schools, Mac.Robertson Girls' High School,

Melbourne High School Melbourne High School is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Single-sex education, single-sex Selective school, academically selective secondary school, secondary day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb ...

and the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School were the sole selective entry schools in Victoria. Entry into John Monash Science School is highly selective, with students first being required to sit an entrance exam (administered b
EduTest
, testing scientific and mathematical amplitude. The top 600 students are invited for an interview, out of which, 200 students will be selected for admission into the school for the following year. More than 5000 students sat the entrance exam in 2024 for the 200 places on offer in Year 10 (100 males & 100 females), where a 3% rule applies, stating that no more than 3% of the school's Year 10 cohort can be part of a single school. There are also a limited number of places for Year 11, with the number ranging from 30 to 40 students, depending on the cohort size. Typically, more than 400 prospective students apply for Year 11 entrance admission. The 3% rule does not apply to Year 11 entry. A variety of elective subjects are offered in Year 10 at John Monash Science School which cover

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

biomedicine Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

(terraforming mars),

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Materials Science. Year 10 students also do a year-long project named EEI (Extended Experimental Investigation), this results in a presentation at the John Monash Science School Science Fair. John Monash Science School is a highly regarded state school in Victoria, consistently achieving strong academic results. In 2024, the school was ranked 4th among all state schools in Victoria and excels in specific VCE subjects. It is ranked 1st in Victoria for VCE Physics and VCE Environmental Science across all schools, 1st in Algorithmics(HESS) among all secondary schools, 2nd in Victoria for VCE Mathematical Methods, and third in the state for VCE Psychology. Additionally, the school frequently ranks within the top 10 for VCE Chemistry, Specialist Maths and Biology in the state.

House system

The student body is divided into four houses: * Flannery (green, house mascot a Griffin) * Blackburn (purple, house mascot a Phoenix) * Wood (silver, house mascot a Wolf) * Doherty (blue, house mascot a Dragon) Each house is named after an accomplished Australian scientist:

Tim Flannery Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, conservationist, explorer, author, science communicator Science communication encompasses a wide range of activities tha ...

Elizabeth Blackburn Elizabeth Helen Blackburn (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. In 1984, Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the ...

, Fiona Wood, and Peter Doherty respectively.

NBN Virtual School of Emerging Sciences

On 13 February 2013, the NBN Virtual School of Emerging Sciences (NVSES) was launched in a coalition effort between John Monash Science School, Monash University, and

Pearson Education Pearson Education, known since 2011 as simply Pearson, is the educational publishing and services subsidiary of the international corporation Pearson plc. The subsidiary was formed in 1998, when Pearson plc acquired Simon & Schuster's educatio ...

. Utilizing the Australian government's National Broadband Network's (NBN) educational facilities, lessons are taught by JMSS staff and Monash University scientists via internet to schools all around Australia. Two subjects are currently offered:

(which leads on to

quantum physics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

) and

nanoscience Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

(leading on to

Notable alumni

* Oliver Mulherin - Spouse of

Sam Altman Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American technology entrepreneur, investor, and the chief executive officer of OpenAI since 2019 (he was Removal of Sam Altman from OpenAI, briefly dismissed and reinstated in November 2023). He ...

References

External links