This school’s black and red blazers are more than a uniform. They’re a passport to a prestigious network

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In its 148 years, Xavier College has produced a Queensland premier, a lord mayor of Melbourne, and 18 federal and state MPs. Schoolboys who enter the exclusive Kew Catholic school’s gates are “Xaverians for life”.

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W alking into Xavier College – with its Great Hall, its 250-space underground temperature-controlled car park, 600-strong rotating art collection, lush sporting ovals and view of the city skyline – feels less like entering a school and more like gaining access to Melbourne’s upper echelons.

And that’s just for a visitor. For the boys who enter the Kew college’s gates, the black and red blazer is a passport that will gain them entry to an exclusive network that can open doors throughout their lives – in business, politics and sport.

Xavier is exclusive and prestigious, with annual fees above $44,000 for every secondary year level.

For that fee, families gain access to not only great facilities and teaching, but to one of the largest alumni communities in Australia, according to Xavier.

But enrolments at the Catholic boys’ school have been declining for more than a decade. The decline has occurred alongside the cost-of-living crisis and changing demographics, and as most boys’ schools battle the general perception that single-sex schools can breed hypermasculine culture.

Increasingly, single-sex schools have gone co-educational in response, but every staff member and old collegian The Age spoke to said the Kew school would stay true to its tradition and remain all-boys.

The Xaverians and staff shared the view of advocates for boys’ schools who argue boys thrive in a learning environment tailored to their gender.

But despite the best intentions, teenage boys are far from perfect, and Xavier has not avoided its share of scandals.

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