Croxton School

Croxton School is a government Prep school for Years 12 and 13 catering to students who have an intellectual disability of a moderate degree. It offers a secure and nurturing learning environment in which students are challenged and achieve their potential to the fullest extent.

Croxton School is a multicampus location that provides a choice of primary and secondary colleges. Croxton School has well defined policies and programs to support students’ wellbeing and provide an enjoyable and safe learning environment. We have implemented the School-wide Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) practices. We are respectful, we are Secure, and We are here to learn. Our school’s values include Humour, Empathy and Respect, Achievement as well as Teamwork(H.E.A.R.T).

Croxton School has highly qualified and experienced staff that are equipped to face the demands of today, and, upcoming
developments in education for children who have special requirements. They work working in tandem with parents and caregivers to provide a secure professional, caring, and compassionate method of providing a high-quality education for all children who are under their supervision and care. Students are able to attend school in full or part-time basis.

Croxton Special School, which officially opened on the 7th of June, 1957, is the only school in Victoria that was specifically designed to educate students with learning disabilities. The original school had six classrooms: two rooms for juniors, two for intermediates , and one for girls and seniors as well as catering for fifteen girls and 17 boys by the end of its first academic year. After the addition of a second building as well as The Manual Training Centre in the 1960s Croxton was later to become one of the biggest facilities in Victoria in the past.

Zoe Roffe was appointed Head Teacher in 1957. She was Head Teacher for ten years. She was responsible for a huge expansion of the school. The year 1964 saw a brand new wings was constructed on the south of the school’s original building and the building that was previously used was expanded:

‘ … During the construction of the new extension and wing the atmosphere at the school declined dramatically. The cause was the complete disruption to school life caused by the builders. All through the year, bulldozers and tractor engines roared in the classrooms, while many workmen frequently recklessly and loudly destroyed areas of the inside in the schools … The water supply was frequently removed, construction materials, the plaster that was torn off inside the destroyed rooms newspaper remnants, old newspapers, traces of the lunches of workers, dirty dairy bottles, textbooks furniture, and just about every garbage that could be found were scattered throughout the school corridor …’

The new building had three classrooms that were renovated including one art and craft area as well as a homecrafts space and hall, a kitchen, toilets, and boiler rooms. The number of teachers increased to 14 plus the Head of School.

The Manual Training Centre (former FOCUS room) was inaugurated on the 28th of January, 1968. It was inaugurated in the year 1968 by Lindsay Thompson MLA, Minister of Education. The woodworking facility was part of a Northcote Lions Club project, which was supported through members of the Parents and Friends Association and the Mothers Club. The money was raised through street stalls, door knocks as well as large school celebrations. A fundraiser dinner took place on the premises of the Southern Cross Hotel at which the Governor Sir Rohan and Lady Delacombe attended. The school’s population by 1970 had risen to 108 (of which 37 girls) and the staff had grown to 15.

In the 1970s, a new Primary Department building and gymnasium were constructed. The number of students and the standards dropped in the 1980s, and then in the mid-90s Croxton gave up its southern wings and was replaced by Baltara School. In the early 1990s the concept of multi-campus was proposed by principal Richard Umbers led to the first of ten annexes that were to be constructed in nearby the primary as well as secondary. The school was reborn thanks to this innovation and enrollments climbed to 180 by 2005.

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