St Bede's College is a private Catholic secondary school for boys in the Melbourne suburb of Mentone. The College was founded in 1938 by the De La Salle Brothers, a religious order based on the teachings of Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, and is a member of the Associated Catholic Colleges, the Council of International Schools and the International Boys' School Coalition.
The College has two campuses: one in Mentone on 16 acres that accommodates students from Years 7 to 12, and a middle years campus in Bentleigh East on 7 acres, tailored to students in Years 7 to 9.
St Bede's College attracts students from Mentone and surrounding suburbs, and Bentleigh East and surrounds.
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History
The College was founded in 1938 at Mentone Beach, by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, or De La Salle Order of Brothers, also known as The French Christian Brothers. The Brothers built the college overlooking Mentone Beach which opened in February, 1938. The Order had purchased a property which included a Victorian homestead, "the McCristal Estate", that had been used by Mentone Girls Grammar School since the early 1920s. From its inception, St Bede's was a day and boarding school until 1998. It remains an independent school in the Lasallian and Catholic tradition.
The school was named after St. Bede the Venerable, a 7th-century Benedictine monk and priest, who spent his life teaching and writing at Jarrow Abbey, and who was the first English historian, famous for his publication of Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
As a boarding school its bailiwick was statewide and encompassed southern New South Wales, and internationally from South East Asia, the South Pacific and the expat community. Its ethos is that of an essentially middle class institution, with an emphasis on athleticism, religion, and discipline. It now comprises approximately 1950 day students.
In 2021, the former St James Catholic Regional College in Bentleigh East amalgamated with St Bede's, under the overall operation of St Bede's College.
Curriculum
Years 7 and 8 students of the College study a variety of core subjects:
Arts (art, drama and music)
English
Digital Technology (STEM)
Health and Physical Education
Humanities (Geography and History)
Languages (Indonesian, Italian, and Prahbu.)
Materials Technology
Mathematics
Science
Religious Education
Years 9 and 10 students also complete the subjects listed above, some of which are elective subjects. This framework is designed to comply with the Australian Curriculum.
St Bede's College offers its senior students the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and VCE Vocational Major.
Technology
In 2016, the College's F1 in Schools team, Infinitude, set the World Record at the World Finals in Austin, Texas, in collaboration with Brighton Secondary School, Adelaide.
In this same year, a team of students successfully won the Australian STEM Video Game Challenge in the Year 9–12 Gamemaker/Gamestar Mechanic category with their game Spectrum.
Principals
Br Simon Staunton: 1937–1938
Br Julian Lennon: 1939–1947
Br Colman Molloy: 1948–1952 and 1959–1965
Br Finian Allman: 1953–1957
Br Stanislaus Carmody: 1966–1967
Br Charles Kirk: 1967–1968
Br Peter McIntosh: 1968–1973
Br William Firman: 1974–1987
Br Kevin Moloney: 1988
Br Quentin O'Halloran: 1989–1998
Br Kenneth Ormerod: 1999–2006
Br Garry Coyte: 2007–2017
John Finn: 2018–2021
Deborah Frizza: 2022–current
Sport
St Bede's is a member of the Associated Catholic Colleges (ACC).
ACC premierships & championships
St Bede's has won the following ACC first division senior premierships and first division aggregate championships:
Aggregate (3) – 2003, 2022, 2023
Athletics (8) – 1958, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1986, 1987
Basketball (10) – 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2015
Cricket (32) – 1958, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2019, 2022, 2023
Cross Country (24) – 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2010, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023
Football (16) – 1953, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1983, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2011, 2019
Handball (4) – 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947
Hockey (16) – 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2016, 2022
Soccer (7) – 1987, 1993, 1996, 2011, 2012, 2023, 2026
Swimming (18) – 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
Table Tennis (1) – 2023
Tennis (13) – 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2023
Alumni
Law, academia, politics and advocacy
Kevin Bell (1972), judge of Supreme Court of Victoria and President of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
Ralph Bernardi, Lord Mayor of Melbourne 1979–1980
Anthony Cavanough (1972), judge of Supreme Court of Victoria
Tim Flannery, (1973) environmentalist, scientist and 2007 Australian of the Year (1973)
Ron McCallum, Dean of Law at Sydney University, specialist in industrial law
Shane Marshall, judge of the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of the ACT and Tasmania
Brad Rowswell, MLA for Sandringham
Nick Staikos, politician and state member for Bentleigh
Marcus Stephen, weightlifter and President of Nauru
Dave Sweeney, nuclear-free campaigner, Australian Conservation Foundation and co-founder of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize
David Van, elected in 2019
Creative arts and entertainment
Chris Cester, member of the band Jet
Nic Cester, member of the band Jet
Liam Davison, novelist
Greg Evans, radio & television presenter
Smacka Fitzgibbon, trad jazz vocalist and banjoist
Patrick Harvey, actor
Jimi Hocking, songwriter, singer and guitarist
Simon Hussey, multi ARIA-awarded composer, producer and engineer for Daryl Braithwaite and James Reyne, member of Australian Crawl
Jonathan Messer, stage and film director
Cameron Muncey, member of the band Jet
Eddie Perfect, actor/comedian
John Torode, celebrity chef
Paul Dempsey, musician and a member of Something for Kate
Sport
Kieran Ault-Connell, Paralympic Games gold medalist
Miles Bergman, Australian rules footballer
Luke Beveridge, Australian rules footballer and coach of the Western Bulldogs
Scott Boland, cricket player
Ryan Byrnes, Australian rules footballer
Paul Callery, Australian rules footballer
Myke Cook, Australian rules footballer
Finn Callaghan, Australian rules footballer
Calsher Dear, Australian rules footballer
Steve Ellery, Australian motorsports racing driver
Peter Fitzgerald, athlete; semi-finalist in the 200 metres at the 1976 Montreal Games
Eugene Galekovic, association football player
Shaun Graf, cricket player
Vince Grella, association football player
Toby Haenen, swimmer and Olympic bronze medallist
Gerard Healy, Australian rules footballer; winner of the 1988 Brownlow Medal
Greg Healy, Australian rules footballer and president of Quiksilver Inc
Brad Hodge, cricket player
Priests and religious
Christopher Saunders, DD, DCL, bishop of Broome