By Kate Lockyer
Brisbane’s first vertical school, which implements mindfulness, bespoke courses and ‘genius hour’ in its curriculum, will welcome its first cohort of Grade 12 students next year.
Fortitude Valley State Secondary College (FVSSC) Principal Sharon Barker said: “Our vision is to create a community of agile learners, who are bold, resilient and kind.”
Ms Barker was appointed in 2018 as the Foundation Principal of FVSSC to create a new secondary school from the ground up.
“The challenge was to be innovative, and think about how we do schooling differently, and to really embed the creative and critical thinking in everything that we do,” she said.
The school opened with 140 Grade 7 students in 2020, adding a new grade each year, with 700 students from Grades 7 – 11 this year.
They will mark the final step in the school’s formation in 2025 with their first Grade 12 cohort.
“I’ve said all along that 2026 will be our consolidating year; it’s the first time that we will do everything for a second time, so it’s really exciting to be that close to it,” Ms Barker said.
There are no school bells rushing students to class each morning. Instead, at the beginning of every day, students do five minutes of mindfulness.
They have six bespoke interdisciplinary courses for the younger grades, alongside traditional classes like English, maths and science.
For example, in their ‘making meaning’ class, they learn languages, history, geography, English, as well as cultural topics like dance and drama.
Ms Barker said research has shown that this is how people learn.
“We don’t learn in isolation, we learn in an interdisciplinary fashion all the time,” she said.
FVSSC makes the most of their vibrant urban area with local area excursions.
“On any given day you can walk out here and see our students doing a history walk through the Valley, data collection at Brunswick Street Mall or Gasworks, or public art walks down at King Street looking at murals…” Ms Barker said.
“We encourage them to go out and about and be a part of our local community.”
Another highlight of their curriculum is genius hour, where students pursue a passion project.
Their projects have ranged from coding and animation to artwork or learning to play an instrument.
One student interested in architecture designed a wheelchair-accessible house, while another entrepreneurial student created her own fairy floss business and raised money for the P&C.
“It’s about giving them the time to think outside the square, be creative, be entrepreneurial, and not have to feel like everything has to be assessed,” Ms Barker said.
For senior students, their subjects have been restructured to split up the study load.
Rather than doing the same six subjects each year for Grade 11 and 12 then sitting one big exam block after two years, FVSSC students study three different subjects each year for double the time, and sit exams at the end of both Grade 11 and 12.
“Across everything we do, we look at the well-being of students as our number one priority,” Ms Barker said.
“We have this philosophy around what’s next, so every time we do a unit of work in class, it’s reviewed. Our teachers are learning designers; they don’t just pull things out of a book and give kids handouts and worksheets…” she said.
If you would like to enrol your child at Fortitude Valley State Secondary School, enrolments are open for all year levels.
Not all heroes wear capes – some bake Girl Guide cookies.
Photography: Kate Lockyer
