Department of Education - Victoria

Cranbourne East Secondary College (CESC), located in the Hunt Club Estate, adjacent to Cranbourne East Primary School and Marnebek School, was established in 2011. The College is in Cranbourne East, approximately 55 kilometers south-east from Melbourne CBD.  As a Public Private Partnership school, we continue to experience rapid enrolment growth, with a year 7-12 enrolment exceeding 2150 students in 2024, an almost 10% increase on 2023.

The Cranbourne East community and cohort is very multicultural, with a significant number of students born overseas and coming from language backgrounds other than English. Students from refugee backgrounds make up approximately 9.7% of the entire cohort and 1% of students are indigenous. The 2024 SFOE index is 0.4551.

The College currently has the equivalent of 173 full time staff, including a Principal, seven Assistant Principals, 11 Learning Specialists, 21 Leading Teachers, EFT 156.1 teaching staff, and 56.6 Education Support staff.

Cranbourne East Secondary College continues to develop a strong sense of community through areas of focus including house culture, student voice and agency, attendance and connectedness, transitions, Positive Education, and wellbeing.

CESC is known and respected for the high expectations we have of our entire community, in all aspects of college life. These expectations extend beyond agreed behaviours and are ingrained in the learning that students are demonstrating in the classroom and form the basis for our comprehensive extra-curricular programs.

At Cranbourne East Secondary College, we stand by our purpose and motto:

Giving every student, every opportunity to exceed their potential by providing a high-quality pathway to success. 

We endeavour to promote an atmosphere of mutual respect, understanding and co-operation which is underpinned by our college values of Respect, Growth, Achievement, and Responsibility.

It is these values that form the basis of our positive school-wide behaviour recognition which also encompasses extra-curricular engagement, leadership, and community service.

The College had a school review in 2023, with a new strategic plan in place for 2024-27. A review of the organisational structures occurred post this review to ensure comprehensive leadership in priority areas to support achievement of goals and targets.

The College is organised into year level teams for both students and teachers. Year Levels are led by teams of teaching and ES staff, overseen by a Sub-School Assistant Principal. Teams include leadership in the space of connectedness, engagement, transition, and voice and agency.

English, Mths, Science, Humanities, and Health and Physical Education are compulsory from Years 7 to 10 with the Arts, Technology and Languages compulsory in Junior School and offered as electives in the Middle Years.

Enrichment and support interventions are numerus at the College, including Connect 4 Success, Effective Reading Program, English and Mathematics enrichment classes, Applied Learning Programs, STEM and Sport Pathways, and Hands on Learning. Equal are the extra-curricular opportunities like Inter-School Sport, instrumental music program, annual College Production, and Blue Edge Program.

As students move into Senior School, broad and robust traditional Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and Vocational Major (VM) pathways are available to students. The award winning VM Program has yielded immense, ongoing successes of our students, particularly coupled with the 4Cs (Cultivating Creative Cultures with Communities) link. Ongoing growth in our VCE results has led to a consolidation of median student study score of 33 in 2023. Students have an immense breadth of subjects to choose from, with high enrolment and participation in Vocational Educational Training (VET) on-site and with community providers.

Our highly resourced careers team ensures each of our students are provided quality individual counselling towards their chosen career pathway, whilst supporting careers education from year 7 in curricular programs of Learning 4 Success, Pathways 2 Success, and year 10 core subject, Industry and Enterprise.

Our college wide, Instructional Model & Professional Learning Teams drive our teaching and learning practices. This approach to teaching and learning promotes consistency between learning areas and year levels, and supports targeted pedagogical approaches, using data, to meet students at their point of need to promote growth and achievement for every child.

We recognize and value the importance of wellbeing for all our students and in response have a dedicated team overseeing an extensive range of supports that ensure our students enter our classrooms ready to learn. This team works closely with sub-school leaders and work extends into the classroom with a collective focus on Positive Education and tiered supports. Staff are currently undertaking professional learning in the Berry Street Educational Model across the next two years to enhance trauma informed pedagogical approaches.