Dandenong High School

The Ann Street Site (the late Cleeland Secondary College site) is situated on Ann Street, Dandenong (37°58′40″S 145°12′48″E), opposite the Dandenong Site. Formerly Dandenong Girls High School, then Cleeland Secondary College, it was built as a girls high school in 1957 with the motto, Above Renown, and the Olympic Torch as its logo. The student population at Cleeland reflected the local cultural diversity and it was for some time the most ethnically diverse in the state. The college established Literacy and Numeracy Centres to promote crucial educational skills to its mainstream and many special needs students. In recent years Cleeland consistently maintained a retention rate of 150%. Cleeland Secondary College was the first school to offer, in conjunction with Chisholm Institute, the new Vocational Education Training (VET) course in Information Technology/Multimedia. The buildings on the Ann Street Site will be demolished after Stage Two building works are complete. A new double-gymnasium, performing arts/drama centre, 350-seat auditorium and sporting ovals/fields will be constructed on the site, as part of the Stage 3 building works. The construction of a federally funded Language Centre is nearing completion on the Ann Street Site.

The Victorian Education Department anticipated an increasing demand for technical school education in areas surrounding Dandenong when it decided to establish Doveton Technical School at the beginning of 1963. Temporarily housed in Dandenong Technical School, Doveton began with 115 boys in Form 1. The new school, built in cement tile veneer on the 14.5-acre (59,000 m²) site in Box St, became available at the beginning of 1964. The Principal W.J.H. Smith was joined by a staff of six. The Parents' Association formed in early 2010 was led by W. Montagne as president and B. King as Secretary. The Chief Inspector of Technical Schools, J.L. Kepert. attended the inaugural meeting of the Advisory Council when Cr G.F. Knowles was elected president. On 5 April 1968 the Minister, the Hon. L.H.S. Thompson, MLC, officially opened the school of which the first three stages had been completed. Enrolments from 1963 to 1968 included students from Doveton, the area E of the Frankston-Dandenong Rd, Narre Warren North, Beaconsfield, Pakenham East, Koo-Wee-Rup, Korumburra, Lang Lang and Cranbourne. Subsidised bus services, trains and school buses from Dandenong Railway Station brought children to Doveton. In 1967 girls courses at Form 1 level were introduced. The previous Doveton Campus, or Doveton Secondary College officially closed down 1 December 2008. Doveton Campus students joined students on the Dandenong Site for the remainder of the 2008 school year.[5] The buildings on the Doveton Campus have now been demolished. A new government P-9 school, Doveton College, opened in 2012 1.5 km east of the old Doveton SC location.[6]

The Dandenong Education Precinct Project is a major regeneration project funded under the Federal Government's Building Our Education Revolution. The previous three separate schools were officially merged under the one name of Dandenong High School in 2007. The amalgamation of the campuses, called the Dandenong Education Precinct Project, will cost the Victorian government $45 million and will be completed in stages. Stage 1 of the building program was completed in early 2009, including the construction of Banksia, Darwinia and Callistemon Houses, and also the extension and refurbishment of the current Library Resource Centre. Stage 2 of the building program consisted of the constructing of the remaining 4 Houses: Fern, Hakea, Grevillea and Eucalyptus, as well as the construction of a Commonwealth-funded Language Centre on the Ann Street Site, costing $2 million. The school architecture designed by Hayball involves 'green' and environmental aspects and incorporates Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) principles, including passive solar design and natural light penetration.

Each House or SWIS building (School-With-In-School building) houses 300 students and a core of 25 teachers. There are 50 students from each year level, in each house. Students from years 7 through to year 12 are based in the same House for their 6 years of secondary schooling. From years 7 to 10, 3 teachers conduct a class of 50 students. However, because the new buildings can cater for both collaborative and independent learning, these class groups usually break off into groups of 17 to 1 teacher. Thus, whilst Dandenong High School is one of the largest public schools in Australia, it also has one of the lowest student to teacher ratios. In years 11 and 12, however, classes are capped at 25 students to 1 teacher, due to the complexity of the VCE, VCAL and VET programs. The House buildings resemble a mini-school because of the administrative structure in each House. Each of the 7 Houses is led by a House Leader (or Assistant Principal), along with an Assistant House Leader and a House Student Coordinator. An Attendance Officer/Receptionist assists with attendance and general tracking of student records. All 7 Houses are overseen by the two Associate principals and the Principal.

Stage 3 of the building project, which is yet to be funded, will consist of a Performing Arts Centre, a 350-seat auditorium, additional Physical Education Centre (with a double gymnasium), Fine Arts Wing, Design Technology Wing, Senior Chemistry/Physics Laboratories, Food Technology Centre, cafeteria, and Fabrics/Media/ICT Wing. Students will be based in their Houses for around 65% of the time, whilst specialist subjects such as Food Technology and Art will be conducted in their respective wings and buildings. The new Alkira Secondary College and William Ruthven Secondary College schools are following a similar architectural concept as Dandenong High School with the SWIS approach. The first half of Stage 3, totalling $10M, was funded in the 2011-12 State Budget, and the second half of Stage 3, totalling $9.4M, was funded in the 2012-13 State Budget.

The new Dandenong High School Houses, or Learning Centres, are named after Australian native plants. These Houses are also the same student bodies used for school curricular activities, such as sporting and music chorals events. The seven new houses, which consist of 300 students each, are: