Celebrating 85 years of educational excellence
For generations, families across Melbourne’s bayside and south-eastern suburbs have chosen St Bede’s College as the place for their child’s life-long education.
Since 1938, it has become a well-known, much-loved and iconic place of welcome for students, their families and our teachers.
We’ve since grown to a two-campus College – Mentone and Bentleigh East – offering endless opportunities for students and teachers to achieve their personal best. We look forward to building on our rich history across the generations to come.
St Bede’s College was founded in 1938 by the De La Salle Brothers.
The founder of the Brothers was Saint John Baptist De La Salle, who was born at Rheims in 1651 during the reign of Louis XIV.
St Bede’s College is a dual-Campus, independent Catholic College with approximately 1,900 students. With two locations in the south-eastern suburbs of Mentone and Bentleigh East – and a third Outdoor Education Campus at Phillip Island – the College caters for students from Years 7 to 12.
The College is governed by an Incorporated College Board, which is responsible to the Trustees of the De La Salle Brothers and led by our Principal, Ms Deborah Frizza, who is responsible to the College Board.
Our Patron Saint – St Bede: Also known as the Venerable Bede
St Bede is widely regarded as the greatest of all the Anglo-Saxon scholars. He wrote around 40 books mainly dealing with theology and history.Bede was born around the year 672 in the English region of Northumbria. At the age of 7, his family entrusted his education to the care of Benedict Biscop at the Benedictine Monastery, St Peter at Wearmouth. He became, as the Holy Father explained “one of the most outstanding scholars of the early Middle Ages.”
In 682 AD, Bede moved to the monastery at Jarrow. By the age of 19 he had become a deacon and was promoted to priest at 30. His scholarship covered a huge range of subjects, including commentaries on the Bible, observations of nature, music and poetry. His most famous work, which is a key source for the understanding of early British history and the arrival of Christianity, is “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People” which was completed in 731 AD. It is the first work of history in which the AD system of dating is used.
Bede considered it vitally important to convince the Churches of the Celts and the Picts to celebrate Easter together, in accordance with the Roman calendar. The Pope exclaimed that thanks to Bede’s approach to theology – which involved a combination of the Bible, liturgy and history – Bede has a modern message for the various “states” of Christian life. Bede died at the monastery in May 735 AD.
Our Lasallian Values
St Bede’s College is committed to the human and Christian education of the whole person. Relationships are the cornerstone of learning within St Bede’s College and central to the wellbeing of the Community. In the tradition of St John Baptist De La Salle, we aim to educate and shape articulate and inclusive young individuals.
It is our aim to instill in our students the values of life-long education and values of compassion and service to the Community. As a Catholic College in the Lasallian tradition, we also aim to present Christ as each person’s model. We will respect ourselves and one another, appreciate individual differences and encourage one another to reach our full potential.
The De La Salle Brothers exist to provide a human and Christian education to young people, especially those less fortunate. The Lasallian Brothers are members of a religious teaching congregation founded by St John Baptist De La Salle in Rheims France in 1680. They strive to model their lives on Christ and to lead their students to an appreciation of and commitment to Gospel values.
Acknowledgement of Country
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation, whose ancient wisdom nurtured these lands and waters for millennia. We pay our respects to their elders, past, present and emerging. May we always walk together by right paths.
