About Montgrove

Principal's Welcome

Welcome to Montgrove’s website and thank you for your interest in the school. As you browse through these pages, I hope you will be able to gain some insight into what makes our school such an exciting place.

Although a relatively young school, Montgrove has already developed a reputation for academic excellence and outstanding community spirit. We offer many opportunities for leadership, as well as a wide range of co-curricular activities in sport, the creative arts and public speaking.

As a school of The PARED Foundation, Montgrove works in partnership with its parents to ensure that all students receive a truly well-rounded education that not only caters to the students’ academic needs, but also develops their character and leadership qualities.

Education at Montgrove looks beyond the school years and towards the future, equipping its students with the skills necessary to lead an authentic and enriching life. We cultivate a love of learning and a sense of responsibility that encourages students to use their knowledge and personal qualities to contribute to the good of the family and society. Staff, students and parents work together to create a safe and welcoming community and the ideal environment for the personal, intellectual, social and spiritual growth of each student.

I feel privileged to be part of this community and I welcome you to attend one of our Open Days where I look forward to meeting you in person.

Lourdes Mejia
Montgrove College Principal


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Our Montgrove Community

History & Mission

 

Montgrove College is an independent school teaching the Catholic faith. It is co-educational from Kindergarten to Year 1 and all girls from Year 2 to Year 12. Boys join Wollemi College from Year 2 to Year 12.

Montgrove is a school where the role of the family in education effectively comes first. The school has the dual role of providing for the overall development of the student as well as assisting parents to become even more competent educators of their children.

Montgrove College offers a personalised system of education, seeking to integrate the pursuit of academic excellence, the acquisition of skills and the development of the student's character.

The personalised Mentoring System, pioneered in Australia by The Pared Foundation, ensures that our educational input is effectively tailored to the individual student and facilitates the partnership between home and school.


The School’s personalised system of education is based on a number of principles:

  • The education of children is primarily the responsibility of parents and is determined to a great extent by the personal example of the parents themselves.
  • The student benefits most when there is harmony between home and school; therefore, parents and teachers should try to grow in the qualities they wish the students to acquire.
  • Teachers are vital partners with parents in a common endeavour. The basis of this partnership is a loyal and mutual understanding of each others’ complementary roles.
  • Parents and teachers need ongoing professional formation as educators who are striving for excellence.

Montgrove College is a community of parents, staff and students who are committed to making a positive contribution to society through the development of character, academic learning and Christian living.

Montgrove aims to provide the foundation that equips students with the skills to become leaders in society through:

  • Striving for excellence in all of one’s endeavours
  • Living a deep faith and having a high level of moral integrity
  • Having a genuine respect for the dignity of all
  • Recognising one’s duty to positively contribute to the family and society
  • Appreciating all that is good, true and beautiful.


Montgrove recognises the role of parents as the primary educators of their children and provides structures and programs that allow parents to work in partnership with the school in their children’s education.

Montgrove acknowledges that every child is unique and, through the personalised Mentoring System, supports each student to be the best that he or she can be.

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Faith at Montgrove

The spiritual development of students forms an integral part of their education at Montgrove College. Students, regardless of their religious faith, are encouraged to foster their relationship with God and to develop their spiritual life with a genuine spirit of freedom and commitment.

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Mass is celebrated at Montgrove College every day at 12:15 pm in the school chapel, by one of the School Chaplains who are also available daily for reconciliation. The spiritual formation of the school is entrusted to Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church.

Confession, doctrinal talks and women’s recollections are available at the School during School terms for parents and students.

The Montgrove College School Chaplains are Fr Anthony Khoudair and Fr Felix Navarro.

NSCSWP - National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program
The school has been fortunate to receive funding from the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations under the National School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program.

The chaplains work with the Principal and school staff in the Pastoral Care needs of the school community - students, their families and the staff. The chaplains provide a valuable service to Montgrove College in a variety of ways, such as:

  • Running courses on family relationships
  • Conducting question and answer sessions with students
  • Providing Marriage counseling
  • Presenting at and/or attending school functions
  • Providing one-to-one or group mentoring/support as needed
  • Providing support as needed during times of grief or crisis
  • Providing guidance about spirituality, values and ethics to students
  • Providing input into the Character program run by the School.

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Image used with permission under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-SA 2.0

St Josemaria Escriva was born in Barbastro in Spain in 1902. As a teenager he had the conviction that God was asking something special of him and so he decided to study for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1926. During a retreat he was attending, on 2 October 1928, he received a vivid and wholly supernatural understanding from God in his soul that he should found Opus Dei.

The name means “Work of God”. Opus Dei’s mission is to promote among men and women of all walks of life a profound awareness of the universal call to holiness, that all Christians have been called by God to make the Gospel known and to seek holiness in and through their daily work, family life and social relations.

In line with Catholic teaching, Saint Josemaria Escriva taught that parents have a duty to oversee the education of their children. He taught that schools are primarily a support for parents who are the primary educators and that parents should work in active cooperation with the schools their children attended. These teachings have now inspired the development of over 150 schools across dozens of countries, the first of which opened their doors in the early 1950s.

Partnership with Parents

 

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Montgrove delivers support to assist parents in their role as the primary educators of their children by providing ongoing formation. This is done through:

  • Individualised feedback and suggestions through the Mentoring System
  • Key Parent Functions hosted regularly through the year
  • Family Education Australia seminars (a case study based parenting education program for different developmental stages)
  • Class Parents
  • Mother and Daughter Activities
  • New Parent Orientation
  • School Chaplain
  • Parent Resources including a Parent library, Perspective magazine and a collection of parenting resources

Key Parent Functions

Key Parent Functions (KPF) are held in Terms 1 - 3 and provide an on-going program to assist parents in the education of their children. Attendance by both parents is essential. Each KPF is held on an evening as seminars or workshops conducted by experienced parents, educators and experts. Topics relate to educating a child at each developmental stage, current issues affecting the family, information sessions on policies and happenings at the college.


The most recent Key Parent Functions have covered the following topics:

  1. Educating in Human Love
  2. Understanding the Teenage Brain
  3. Characteristics of Strong Families
  4. The Home: Shaping Personal Identity
  5. Boundaries with Children
  6. Cyber Safety
  7. Parental Unity

Parent involvement at Montgrove, means, first of all, involvement in the education of one’s own child through the mentoring system. The mentoring system helps to ensure that parents do not lose their key role in overseeing the education of their children. Parents are encouraged to talk frequently with the mentor of their child, keeping track of priorities in their child’s development as a student and as a whole person.

When parents work closely with the mentor, the College is better able to address the specific needs of the individual student. Parents are better able to direct their children’s upbringing even though they spend much of their time at school, perhaps even more than they might spend personally with their parents.

The specific commitments asked of parents on coming to Montgrove are:

  • to work closely with their child’s mentor. This involves a meeting of both parents together with the mentor, usually at the College, at least every term;
  • to provide follow-up at home of the goals set in this parent-mentor meeting;
  • to attend the Key Parent Functions and other formal functions organised by the College in order to keep up to date with developments at the school, be informed of issues which the College sees as important in the formation of the students and to meet with their child’s teachers;
  • to do their best to help create an extended family within their child’s class, forming friendships with other parents and offering support when the small and more challenging crises of life arise.

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Additionally, parents contribute tremendous energy and expertise to sports coaching and managing and give their time generously to occasional working bees, and by helping out at the various College functions and activities during the year (Mother’s & Father’s Day stalls, fundraising activities, performing arts nights, etc). Nevertheless, the absolute priority is in booking and meeting up with the mentor, and in attending the Key Parent Functions.

Some parents also contribute their time to The Pared Foundation in various ways, for example on the Finance or Promotion Committees.

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Our Brother School: Wollemi College

Montgrove enjoys a strong relationship with our brother school Wollemi College (https://www.wollemi.nsw.edu.au/), which is a short 10-minute drive from our campus. Both schools share the same ethos and partner with parents through the unique 1-on-1 mentoring system to help each student achieve their personal best and to grow into men and women of good character.

MONTGROVE
K-Yr 12

Co-ed from Kindy to Year 1. Girls only from Year 2 to Year 12.

Wollemi
Yr 2-Yr 12

All boys Year 2 to Year 12. Kindy to Year 1 boys go to Montgrove.

Our schools value a single-sex education and draw on this to provide for the academic and pastoral needs that are unique to young men and women.

One of the unique benefits offered to families whose children attend both Montgrove and Wollemi is that the sibling concessions including the building levy and fees (based on concurrent enrolments), apply across Montgrove and Wollemi e.g. one family pays the Family Building Levy once even though they have children at both schools.

Employment Opportunities

If you are interested in working for Montgrove College, we advertise employment opportunities via seek.com.au.

>> Click here for a list of current opportunities at Montgrove College

If there are no current opportunities, you may wish to submit an expression of interest for future roles with the School’s HR Team at hr@pared.edu.au

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Infants: Kindergarten to Year 1