St Bede's College

St Bede's College is a Catholic secondary school for boys in the Melbourne suburb of Mentone. The college was founded in 1938 by the De La Salle Brothers, a religious order based on the teachings of Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, and is a member of the Associated Catholic Colleges and the Council of International Schools. The college has two campuses: one in Mentone that takes students from years 7 to 12, and one in Bentleigh East that takes students from years 7 to 9. History The College was founded in 1938 at Mentone Beach, by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, or De La Salle Order of Brothers, also known as The French Christian Brothers. The Brothers built the college overlooking Mentone Beach which opened in February, 1938. The Order had purchased a property which included a Victorian homestead, "the McCristal Estate", that had been used by Mentone Girls Grammar School since the early 1920s. From its inception, St Bede's was a day and boarding school. It is now a day school only. It remains an independent school in the Catholic tradition with its administration still retained by the De La Salle Brothers. The school was named after St. Bede the Venerable, a 7th-century Benedictine monk and priest, who spent his life teaching and writing at Jarrow Abbey, and who was the first English historian, famous for his publication of Ecclesiastical History of the English People.