Four schools used to stand somewhat apart in a section of southeast Melbourne, each with its own student body, history, and set of issues. More than 2,000 students from Year 7 through Year 12 are taught at Keysborough Secondary College, which now operates across two contemporary campuses where those schools once stood. On paper, this kind of transformation seems simple. In reality, it is hardly ever.
In October 2008, the $43 million merger of Chandler, Heatherhill, Springvale, and Coomoora Secondary Colleges was formally completed. It wasn’t until late 2009 that work on the two retained campuses, now known as Acacia and Banksia, started. The whole thing must have seemed uncertain for a while. Combining four school communities into one is the kind of project where the goal frequently outlasts the implementation.
However, it appears that something has worked. The Department of Education’s School Performance Report awarded Keysborough Secondary College a “High” rating in 2025, which is the highest possible rating. That’s a big deal. Based on data on student learning and well-being, the rating indicates that the college has moved past the growing pains that usually accompany a school consolidation of this magnitude.
The breadth of what’s offered is what sticks out when you walk through a school like this or even read about how it operates. Just the list of VCE subjects—Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Drama, Music Performance, Systems Engineering, Legal Studies, and Visual Communication Design—is as long as a modest grocery receipt. It’s possible that the curriculum’s diversity is precisely what keeps students interested throughout their senior year, especially those who might not do well in a strictly academic setting. Additionally, the college provides VET pathways and the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning, which is a subtle recognition that not every student is going to a university lecture hall and that’s okay.
An additional layer is added by the international student program. Keysborough has established the kind of infrastructure that takes years to properly develop, with 144 international students enrolled and an English language center on campus. There are program assistants on campus who speak Vietnamese, Chinese, and Khmer. Alumni and students from nearby universities are brought in for mentoring. The captain is an international student. These are not details from brochures; rather, they show genuine institutional investment in giving international students a sense of belonging rather than just passing through.
Support for wellbeing is also taken seriously. Every campus has a chaplain, mental health professionals, youth workers, inclusion support staff, and a coordinator for student wellbeing. Both campuses have access to a doctors-in-schools facility. Only students and families in the community would be fully aware of whether or not all of this contributes to a truly supportive environment. However, not all government secondary schools have the same architecture of support.
There have been challenges at the college. A staff member was taken into custody in December 2025 after a major incident involving the principal. That person entered a guilty plea and received a sentence in May 2026. Any school community is shaken by this kind of incident, and there’s a feeling that an institution’s response during those times reveals something about its culture.
Three declared values serve as the foundation for Keysborough College: diversity, excellence, and respect. Many school websites contain those words. Depending on what takes place inside the buildings on any given Tuesday, they may or may not have any significance. From the outside, it appears that the college is doing more than just posting aspirational language on its website. In a competitive state system, it received a top performance rating. It’s more difficult to fake that.
