Wendouree, Victoria - Education

Education

Wendouree is home to Ballarat Grammar School in Forest Street and the Wendouree campus of Ballarat Secondary College. Wendouree also has four primary schools, Wendouree Primary, Forest Street Primary, Our Lady Help of Christians Parish Primary, and Yuille Park Community College.

Ballarat Grammar is an independent Kindergarten to Year 12 school affiliated with the Anglican Church of Australia. It was opened by Bishop Green on the current site at the corner of Howitt and Forest Streets in 1911 as a school only for boys. In 1973 the school amalgamated with the Queens Grammar School for girls in Ballarat Central, with the girls making the move to the larger Wendouree campus.

Ballarat Secondary College (Wendouree Campus) is located at the corner of Forest Street and Giot Drive, at the northern end of the suburb. It opened in 1978 as the Wendouree High Technical School. Its name changed to Wendouree Secondary College in 1990. In 1993 the school agreed to amalgamate with Ballarat East Secondary College (originally High School) and Midlands Secondary College (originally Ballarat North Technical School) to form Ballarat Secondary College. The Wendouree campus, like that of Ballarat East, caters for years 7 to 10. Years 11 and 12 are accommodated at the Barkly Street, Ballarat Central, campus opened in 2000. It replaced the Midlands campus, which has since been demolished.

Wendouree Primary School (PS 1813) is located on Howitt Street opposite the Howitt Street shopping centre.

Forest Street Primary School (PS 4936) is located at the northern end of Forest Street near the secondary college. It opened in 1968.

Our Lady Help of Christians Parish Primary School is located on Gillies Street in the suburb's north-west. It was opened on October 15, 1961, with the foundation staff of Srs. Anne Gardan, Anotoinette Russo, Paulinus Setford and Austin Connellan.

Wendouree West Primary School (PS 4396) opened in 1957. In 1972 the school was given a State award for having the best maintained school grounds in Victoria, with extensive plantings of flower beds and native trees. In 1975 a library, art room and multi-function hall complex was built at the expense of the removal of many of the best native flower and rose beds. In 1977 the primary school population peaked at 437 children. This number decreased significantly with the establishment of the temporary Yuille Primary School to the north in 1981. Wendouree West Primary was renamed Grevillea Park in the early 1990s.

Yuille Park Community College (PS 5520), located on Violet Grove in the west of the suburb, opened in brand new buildings in 2007 as the merger of Yuille Primary School and Grevillea Park Primary School. The Yuille Primary School buildings in McKenzie Drive are now used for running alternative education programs for disinterested students.