East Doncaster Secondary College was established in 1974 and is situated in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. In 2024, the College has an enrolment of over 1900 students, including 75 international students.
Our College is a large, single campus, co-educational school with a focus on high academic achievement, excellence in teaching and learning, student connectedness and wellbeing and a broad, inclusive co-curricular program. From an organisation perspective, our student body is divided into the Middle School – Years 7-9 and the Senior School – Year 10-12
As a College, we strive to develop passionate learners who are critical thinkers with the confidence and capability to engage in the global community. We want students to experience a sense of achievement and growth in their academic, personal, social and emotional development. The College values of curiosity, excellence, fairness, respect, resilience, teamwork, care and compassion reflects there desired outcomes.
Our focus as a professional learning community is captured by our maxim – “Creating a Culture of Curiosity”.
Our College has a strong tradition of academic excellence. We have high expectations that our students will commit to being supportive of each other as they strive for success as learners. We want students to experience a sense of achievement and growth in their academic, social and emotional development.
We are proudly multicultural across over 40 nationalities, with a very successful international student program. Over 40% of our students undertake English as an Additional Language (EAL) study. With over 74% of our students having language backgrounds other than English, a strong focus for our College continues to be upon literacy improvement in all subject areas at all year levels.
Our student achievement data is excellent across a range of data sets and year levels. Our VCE results have been consistently excellent and our NAPLAN data indicates our students are strong performers in both Literacy and Numeracy.
Through a highly successful VCE program, more than 95% of our Year 12 students consistently progress to tertiary studies.
Within the VCE sector of our Senior School, we have this year introduced the Vocational Major course pathways that has been established this year for both Year 11 and 12 students. To compliment this, we provide access to a wide range of VET studies to maximise the opportunities of success for all students.
We strive to have our students taking greater responsibility for their learning and greater agency in the way that they learn. We consistently seek to build leadership capacity in our students via specific development programs and mentoring and this has resulted in a greater involvement in the SLED team, the Senior and Middle School leadership teams, Captaincy of Home Groups, Houses, International Students, Sporting Teams, Debating, Music, Drama, Wellbeing, Peer Support and Technical Support
In responding to our students needs, we have developed a Positive Education program “Positive Futures”, to improve the resilience, mindsets, self-regulation and connection of our students and all stakeholders in our educational community. We continue to be proud that our College embraces both social and cultural diversity and inclusion by being accepted as ‘lead school’ in the state-wide ‘Respectful Relationships’ program.
Our broad and extensive co-curricular program involving Sport, debating, academic competitions, instrumental music, performing and creative arts, Camps and Outdoor Education events cater for the diversity of student interest and provide a vast array of learning opportunities and connection for our student body in all year levels.
We provide our students with opportunities to develop global knowledge and cross-cultural understanding through our sister school relationships with Suzhou Caoqiao Middle School in Suzhou,China and Istituto Istruzione Superiore Biagio Pascal in Novara, Italy. These include teacher and student exchange on a biennial basis. These are complemented with opportunities for students to participate in tours to NASA and World Challenge projects. We continue to provide opportunities for our students to develop an understanding of and connection with their community beyond the College gates.