Our vibrant Christian learning community is supportive, positive, safe and secure.
Danebank girls are at the heart of everything we do and our staff hear, nurture, care for and celebrate every student. We actively partner with families and encourage your engagement in your daughter’s learning.
Our unique learning environment and multi-faceted curriculum are typified by remarkable academic results and designed to ensure our girls:
- Receive meaningful, engaging, relevant and challenging learning experiences.
- Have the opportunity to explore their talents, interests and passions.
- Learn how to learn.
- Are equipped with the character, knowledge and skills required for future success.
- Receive an exceptional advantage for life in a rapidly changing modern world.
Annual intakes for our Senior School are in Years 7 and 11. Entry into other year groups depends on availability.
Learning Offerings
Danebank's Approach to Learning is a comprehensive, student-centred model designed to foster academic excellence, personal growth and lifelong learning. It is built on a strong learning culture that promotes not just the acquisition of knowledge but the development of learning dispositions, skills, mindsets and character.
The Higher School Certificate (HSC) is the highest educational award in New South Wales. It provides flexible choices and the ability to specialise in an area of interest. While we’re not a selective school, our students score well above averages for the state in competitions and external examinations. We offer approximately 35 subjects.
We offer three Vocational Education and Training (VET) subjects: Hospitality, Entertainment Industry, and Business Services, in Years 11 and 12.
Students study the core subjects of English, Mathematics, Science and Geography, plus a range of other subjects, ensuring they get a taste of subjects they might wish to study in-depth in later years. Gifted Year 7 students can engage in accelerated Mathematics in Year 7.
Students continue to study the core subjects (see Year 7) with the addition of History. They also elect to study one language (Japanese or French).
Students continue to study the core subjects as outlined in Year 7 and 8. They also choose electives. Students elect two 100-hour courses for study in Year 9 and then have the option to either choose the same subjects again for Year 10 (making this a 200-hour course) or select another two 100-hour elective courses. Over the two years in Stage 5, students can choose from Drama, Music, Photography and Digital Media, Visual Arts, Commerce, History Elective, International Studies, Physical Activity and Sport Studies, Design and Technology, Food Technology, Industrial Technology, Multimedia, iStem and Textiles Technology. The only exceptions are French and Japanese, the details of which are discussed with students when they choose a language.
Compulsory subjects for students include English and Studies of Religion or Christian Studies. Students then choose four to five electives from a list of over 30 on offer including Ancient History, Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Design and Technology (Mixed Materials or Multimedia), Drama, Economics, Food Technology, French, Geography, Health and Movement Science, Investigating Science, Italian, Japanese, Legal Studies, Modern History, Music, Physics, Society and Culture, Textiles and Design, Visual Arts. Extension subjects are available in English, Mathematics, Science, Music and History. We offer three Vocational Education and Training (VET) subjects: Hospitality, Entertainment Industry, and Business Services, in Years 11 and 12.
Our Signature Programs are whole-school initiatives that foster real-world, interdisciplinary links across wellbeing, curricular and co-curricular domains.
Our technology curriculum incorporates high-impact learning experiences to prepare girls for future work with specialist rooms and equipment.
Music, Dance, Arts and Drama are essential to educating the whole child. Danebank offers an extensive and enriching program for our girls to explore, discover passions and pursue their talents in the Performing Arts.
Our motto is Ut Prosim: That I may serve . As a community we embrace service learning opportunities.
High potential and gifted students are helped to maximise their potential through differentiated learning experiences. They are provided an environment that challenges them and supports them in their learning through a plethora of enriching opportunities.
Students with special needs are identified early, using the expertise of the School Psychologist and the Learning Enrichment Team. Where needed, additional help is provided by Learning Enrichment teachers and learning support assistants.
Danebank offers a range of Scholarships for students entering Year 7. Find out more.
Wellbeing
Individualised Care and Support
We understand that student wellbeing and academic care are essential for learning. Wellbeing and learning are inextricably linked and both need to be nurtured for students to flourish in life. Our teachers are outstanding, deeply committed educators who get to know their students and how they learn, and tailor their programs accordingly. Our teachers combine learning frameworks to ensure wellbeing, thinking and learning are integrated. We provide appropriate levels of stretch and challenge, coupling this with high support, nurture and care.
Learning in community is what school is all about, which means relationships are central to everything we do. We are committed to a restorative practice approach to building and maintaining respectful relationships, where students are supported to understand the impact of their choices and how to make things right. Through restorative practices we create a trusting, empathetic environment, providing all students with the opportunity to make positive choices and interact respectfully in the community.
Visible Wellbeing™
Danebank is the first all-girls Anglican Visible Wellbeing Partner School in NSW. Designed by Professor Lea Waters (PhD), a world-renowned expert in positive psychology, Visible Wellbeing™ (VWB) combines the science of wellbeing with the science of learning and teaching to make wellbeing visible in all classes and across co-curricular activities.
VWB isn’t a set program, it’s a set of flexible practices that can be applied across any subject matter, and in all contexts: early learning, primary, secondary, and in the staff room, to achieve a common language and framework for building wellbeing across the school. With the VWB approach, academic learning and wellbeing are truly integrated.
In addition, our bespoke wellbeing programs promote health, positive emotion, engagement, relationships and build resilience. We work to ensure that our girls are connected to our community and develop a strong sense of belonging, identity and purpose.
Student Care Structures
Danebank prides itself on our comprehensive student-care network. Year Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of their students’ needs and undertake the special care of their year groups. They liaise with staff and parents to ensure that the needs of their year group are understood and promoted right throughout their high school years. Students are also supported by Connect teachers. Connect teachers meet with students for 30 minutes every day in a variety of contexts. They attend chapels and assemblies with students, deliver a wellbeing period once a week and supervise Year 11 leaders who run activities with younger students.
Where necessary they refer to the expertise of specialists such as:
- School Chaplain
- School Psychologists, Counsellors and Wellbeing Coaches
- Careers Facilitator
Co-Curricular Opportunities
Extensive and broad-ranging opportunities exist for girls at Danebank as they explore their passions, interests and talents while developing the dispositions, relationships and character to thrive in the future. Co-curricular offerings turn the sparks of curiosity into flames of passion within our girls.
