Aquinas College is a Catholic Regional College established to provide a secondary education for Catholic boys and girls residing in the parishes of the Eastern region of Melbourne, centred particularly on the Maroondah Deanery. Students come from Mitcham, Vermont, Ringwood, North Ringwood, Croydon, Park Orchards, Warrandyte, Wonga Park, Kilsyth, Mooroolbark, Wantirna, Bayswater, Boronia, Ferntree
Gully and Scoresby and the surrounding suburbs. A regional College means that, rather than be governed by a religious order, Aquinas is governed by the parishes that established the College in 1961. In The Beginning
Aquinas Boys' College was established on 8 February 1961, and was administered by the Christian Brothers. They opened the doors to welcome 130 boys in Forms 1 and 2. Aquinas Girls' College became a reality in February 1967 with different Orders of Religious Sisters supporting the College. During the second week of February they welcomed 84 girls into Form 1. As the numbers were diminishing in the Religious Orders, it became necessary for the sisters to withdraw their services at the end of 1978. At the beginning of 1979 the Boys' and Girls' Colleges amalgamated and became known as Aquinas College under lay administration. It incorporated the structure of three sub-schools; Junior Girls and Boys (Years 7-10) and Senior co-educational (Years 11-12) with an overall student population of approximately 1400. Aquinas Today
The College is co-educational from Years 7 to 12. It operates as an integrated teaching and learning community with distinct curriculum emphasis as students move through the College. Years 7, 8 & 9 are taken together as the Middle Years whilst Years 10, 11 and 12 are understood to operate as the Senior Years. The focus in Year 9 is the transition from Middle Years to the Senior Years. The current enrolment is approximately 1670 students.
