Eynesbury Senior College was an independent co-educational senior high school located on Franklin Street in the city centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. The college comprised a modern, five-storey, multi-function complex and caters for Year 10, 11 and 12 students.
Due to the impact the Coronavirus pandemic had on the number of international students enrolled at the school, Eynesbury Senior College stopped operation at the end of the 2021 academic year.
The college was characterised by its adult learning environment and its different approach to senior secondary education. Noticeably absent are extra-curricular activities, extensive sporting programs, festivals and other activities which are a feature of traditional schools. As a result, teachers were available outside scheduled class times for extensive one-to-one support. Students were encouraged to see their teachers as colleagues and are free to address them by their first name.
Eynesbury was known for its record of consistent academic success. The median Australian Tertiary Admission Rank of its students was around 87-90 each year with about 95% going on to undertake tertiary studies.
History
Eynesbury House
Eynesbury House is a heritage-listed late-Victorian Italianate former mansion located at 69 Belair Road, in the Adelaide suburb of Kingswood. The mansion was built by William Martin Letchford (1824–1880) on of land subdivided in 1854. With the death of Letchford's second wife in 1872, he moved to Glenelg and sold the property to businessman George Wilcox who named it Eynesbury and enhanced it considerably. The house was added to the South Australian Heritage Register on 12 January 1984.
The name of the house was derived from Eynesbury, Cambridgeshire, in England.
At one stage, the house was occupied by Hare Krishnas and the transition from the temple to Eynesbury College was completed in 1989 after the establishment of a laboratory and library.
Eynesbury College
Eynesbury became a registered school on 1 October 1989. The first intake of Year 11 and Year 12 students was in mid-January 1990, with an initial enrolment of 140 students. The school was initially registered as Eynesbury House Senior Secondary College. However it became known as Eynesbury College.
By 1995 the school had outgrown the Kingswood Campus and, in January 1996, a second larger campus was opened in Franklin Street in the heart of the city of Adelaide. Eynesbury remained a two-campus school until the end of 2001, when teaching was consolidated at an expanded and upgraded Franklin Street campus. Redevelopment of the Franklin Street campus took place over several stages. The first stage involved an extensive upgrade of electrical services, fire protection and the construction of laboratories. This was followed with the rebuilding of reception areas, the construction of additional computing classrooms and science laboratories, and the redevelopment of the outdoor terrace on the second floor as a modern, cafe-style recreation area for students. A new Drama centre was opened in July 2005. In Eynesbury's largest single capital development, the building's air conditioning plant was replaced in 2006. The original two lifts of the Franklin Street campus were replaced in early 2009.
Eynesbury celebrated its 20th birthday in 2009 with the opening of a new campus. Located in Coglin Street, Adelaide, the new campus is the location for the majority of Eynesbury's international students. The Eynesbury Institute of Business and Technology (EIBT) moved to the new campus in April 2009 and other programs followed soon after.
Closure
On the 16th of June 2021, Eynesbury Senior College announced it is closing at the end of the 2021 academic year. Eynesbury Senior College chairman Stephen Spencer said the pending closure was due to the international border closure caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before the international border closure, Navitas provided Eynesbury Senior College with up to 40 percent of its cohort through international students. It also provides us with staff, our Franklin Street campus, and essential shared facilities. He said.