# St Bede's College (Mentone)

St Bede's College is a 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 that accommodates students from Years 7 to 12, and a middle years campus in Bentleigh East, tailored to students in Years 7 to 9.
St Bede's College attracts students from Mentone and surrounding suburbs, and Bentleigh East and surrounds.

## 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 and Italian)
* Materials Technology
* Mathematics
* Science
* Religious Education
Years 9 and 10 students complete the subjects listed above also, yet some 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.
VCE results 2012–2023 :
| Year | Rank | Median study score | Scores of 40+ (%) | Cohort size |
| 2012 | 143 | 31 | 6.9 | 352 |
| 2013 | 105 | 32 | 9.5 | 345 |
| 2014 | 138 | 31 | 7.9 | 329 |
| 2015 | 143 | 31 | 7.6 | 372 |
| 2016 | 118 | 31 | 9.9 | 347 |
| 2017 | 141 | 31 | 7.9 | 349 |
| 2018 | 170 | 30 | 7.8 | 333 |
| 2019 | 178 | 30 | 6.3 | 326 |
| 2020 | 183 | 30 | 5.9 | 358 |
| 2021 | 190 | 30 | 6.4 | 347 |
| 2022 | 261 | 29 | 4.2 | 338 |
| 2023 | 125 | 31 | 8.3 | 343 |

## 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 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 (6) – 1987, 1993, 1996, 2011, 2012, 2023
* Swimming (15) – 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
* Table Tennis (1) – 2023
* Tennis (13) – 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2023
* Triathlon (4) – 2016, 2017, 2019, 2023
* Golf (23) – 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012

## Alumni
### Business

* Michael Hirst – former CEO Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and current member of the board of directors AMP Limited
* Jeremiah Siemianow – founder of Muso/Surreal, live music management platform

### Law, academia, politics and advocacy

* Hon. Justice Kevin Bell (1972) – judge of Supreme Court of Victoria and President of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
* Cr Ralph Bernardi – Lord Mayor of Melbourne 1979–1980
* Hon. Justice Anthony Cavanough (1972) – judge of Supreme Court of Victoria
* Graham "Smacka" Fitzgibbon – Australian jazz legend
* Professor Tim Flannery – (1973) celebrated environmentalist, scientist and 2007 Australian of the Year (1973)
* Professor Ron McCallum – Dean of Law at Sydney University, a specialist in industrial law
* Peter McTigue OAM (Dux 1951) DPhil (Oxon) – Dean, School of Chemistry, Melbourne University 1986-1990
* Hon. Justice Shane Marshall – (Dux of Humanities 1973) 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
* Hon. 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.
* Senator David Van – elected in 2019.
* Hon. Justice Neil Young QC – judge of the Federal Court of Australia

### Creative arts and entertainment

* British India – rock band members Declan Melia, Will Drummond, Matt O'Gorman and Nick Wilson.
* Chris Cester – member of the band Jet
* Nic Cester – member of the band Jet
* Liam Davison – novelist
* Greg Evans – radio & television presenter
* Carl and Mark Fennessy (1979 and 1985) – founders of Crackerjack Productions, joint CEOs of Endemol Shine Australia
* 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/film director
* Cameron Muncey – member of the band Jet
* Patrick O’Neill – member of Melbourne janky pop band Twerps.
* Eddie Perfect – actor/comedian
* John Torode – celebrity chef

### 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; a 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
* Jon Holland – cricket player
* Nathan Holman – golfer; 2015 Australian PGA champion
* Blake Howes- Australian rules footballer
* Bob Hoysted – racehorse trainer
* Bradley Hughes – golfer; 1993, 1998 Australian Masters Champion
* Tom Lamb – Australian rules footballer
* Stephen McBurney – Australian rules football umpire
* Michael McCarthy
* Hayden McLean – Australian rules footballer
* Tony Marchant – cyclist and Olympic Gold Medallist
* Ljubo Milicevic – Association football player
* Tom Nicholls – Australian rules footballer
* Brett O'Hanlon – Australian rules footballer
* Dylan O'Keeffe – Australian motorsports racing driver
* Clive Rose – cricket player
* Peter Russo – Australian rules footballer
* Dylan Shiel – Australian rules footballer
* Jack Steven – Australian rules footballer
* Liam Sumner – Australian rules footballer
* Grant Thomas – Australian rules footballer and former coach of St Kilda Football Club
* Marcus Windhager – Australian rules footballer

### Priests and religious

* Brother Raphael Bassett F.S.C. - Provincial of De La Salle Brothers in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea
* Most Rev. Christopher Saunders, DD, DCL – Bishop of Broome
* Fr Michael Buck, Assistant Priest & Master of Ceremonies – St Patrick's Cathedral Melbourne
* Fr Tom Sheeran - Parish priest at St Mary's Warwickga