Hope Belonging Nurturing Success
Small classes of up to 10 students, each led by a teacher and an education support staff member, provide a safe, supportive alternative to mainstream schooling.
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Our Box Hill Campus offers a supportive, inclusive environment for students in Years 7–10 who need more than a mainstream school can provide. As an alternative secondary school in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, we specialise in supporting students with ADHD, autism, anxiety, trauma, or those who have become disengaged from learning. Families looking for a private alternative school near them often find that Berengarra School provides the right balance of academic growth and wellbeing support.
The curriculum is informed by the Victorian Curriculum and adapted to suit each student’s learning needs. Our goal is to create personalised educational opportunities within a nurturing, community-based setting. Students are encouraged to rediscover their confidence, re-engage with learning, and explore their strengths in a safe and flexible school environment.
Classes are small, with up to 10 students learning together in a safe and supportive environment. Each class is led by a teacher and supported by an education support staff member, with additional support from our dedicated wellbeing team. This structure allows for close relationships, tailored learning and daily wellbeing check-ins.
Planning for teaching and learning follows a skills-based outline, focusing on literacy and numeracy as a priority. The inquiry skills of researching, analysing, evaluating, reflecting and communicating are woven into the curriculum to help students grow as independent, confident learners.
All classes are mixed-ability, and learning activities are carefully adapted to meet each student’s goals and capabilities, whether they are reconnecting with learning or building on existing strengths.
Box Hill Campus supports up to around 50 students in Years 7–10 with calm spaces, small classes and trauma-aware staff. Students learn the Victorian Curriculum across core and specialist subjects, with a strong focus on rebuilding engagement and success through achievable, skills-based learning.
Programs cover Literacy, Numeracy, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics), Technologies (including Food Technology), Visual Arts, Humanities, Physical Education and Health, and explicit Social and Emotional Learning.
Literacy learning builds the skills students need to communicate in school, work and relationships.
Numeracy is taught in ways that feel achievable and relevant, especially for students with past negative experiences of maths.
Students investigate the world through hands-on, inquiry-based STEAM learning that invites curiosity and experimentation.
The weekly Drama program builds students’ confidence through improvisation, play-building and performance work.
Weekly SEL classes explicitly support wellbeing, relationships and participation in school and community life.
Visual Arts provides a safe space for students to explore identity, take creative risks and manage frustration.
Humanities subjects broaden students’ understanding of people, places and systems, locally and globally.
Physical Education is about confidence, regulation and social connection as much as physical skills.
Food Tech combines independent living skills with practical cooking and nutrition.