Bentleigh Secondary College is a coeducational public high school in Bentleigh East, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1956, it has been renamed several times before becoming Bentleigh Secondary College.[1]
Bentleigh Secondary College has been through major modernisation since 2019-2024. The first being in 2019, where a state of the art STEAM was built (Da Vinci Building) which included, new science, textiles, woodtech, IT, art and economics rooms. They also built, a two court basketball stadium and weights room. In 2024 a new performing arts centre was built, which includes a theatre, dance room, six instrumental rooms and three drama rooms[2]
Campus
The college is made up of various different 'blocks' and buildings:[3]
The Administration Block was built in stage one of the college's building program. It consists of offices, conference rooms, a staff room and a sick bay as well as a Food Tech room
The Performing Arts Centre was demolished in may of 2023, and soon was rebuilt, opening December 2024[4]. It has 500 seats capacity, and took $13.2 million to build[5]
The sports stadiums, is made up of main stadiums (the 'old' stadium and the 'new' stadium). The new stadium is informally known by students as "the barcode" due to its prominent design on the outside. Both, boasts two sports courts and changerooms. In between the two stadiums is the home of the school gym. The stadiums are heavily utilised by sports and PE classes, the stadium is also rented to the community, and sports organisations such as basketball teams are based there[5].
The VCE Centre was converted from the former library. It has an open plan style with teachers' desks at the centre, several classrooms, and generous study space. It is used by students, particularly those in year 12, undertaking VCE studies. this also contains the lockers of the year 12 students.
The learning centre was completed under stage two of the college's building program, and incorporates the college library. this is currently home to the lockers of the dendy inside, and out of the back of the centre are the wetlands lockers, which are currently in use by the hawker house.
The Da Vinci Centre was completed in 2017 and holds most of the schools elective classrooms, as well as a few science labs and normal classrooms, this building is currently(as of may 2023) home to the lockers of the fawkner houses.
The A block is located next to the performing arts centre, and holds 16 classrooms, in between a couple of the portables is the Year 7 precinct, where during snack and lunch no other year level is allowed to hang out
The Wetlands Class Rooms, is located near the 'old stadium', and contains 4 classrooms these rooms are barely used though.
Students learn Japanese or French and attend three periods of their elected language per week for Year 7 and 8. After Year 8, LOTE becomes an elective subject.[6]
Gifted and Talented Program
The college has implemented a Gifted and Talented Program whereby students, based on the results of a standardised test undertaken before entering high school, of high potential to achieve are grouped into one class until the end of year nine.[7]
Performing arts
Performing arts at Bentleigh Secondary College consists of music, drama and dance. With the option to study an instrument, there are several well-developed school bands. The Symphonic Wind Ensemble is the most senior of the bands made up of brass, woodwind and percussion players. This ensemble competed in the Advanced Concert Band section of the Melbourne School Bands festival for the first time in 2009. There is also a concert band, Intermediate Band and Year 7 Concert Band. There are Senior, Intermediate and Junior Jazz Bands, as well as senior rock band which perform at the annual "Big Band Bogie" and on concert nights. In addition to these bands there are a dozen or so small ensembles such as brass ensemble and clarinet ensemble. Also new this year is the college choir, which is open for all students to join. Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville was the school's production for 2011.
At approximately 3:00 am on 10 February 2008, two police officers saw smoke coming from the school and a car leaving this area. The fire caused more than $100,000 in damage, however the decision of the officers to proceed to the cause of the smoke rather than pursue the culprits prevented further destruction.[9]
Braided hair controversy
In March 2017, two sisters who attend the college were ordered to remove their hair braids or face consequences by school staff. The sisters, of South Sudanese descent, stated that the braids were the healthiest and best way to manage their hair and refused to remove them.[10] The sisters accused the school of discrimination. Media coverage and public backlash resulted from the incident due to the school's perceived lack of racial sensitivity and understanding.[11]
Bomb threat
During 2016 Bentleigh Secondary College was one of the many targeted schools[12], in the 2016 Australian School Bomb Threat, over a thousand people were evacuated from the school shortly after 9am.[13]
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