Ballarat Specialist School
25 Gillies Street North, Lake Gardens VIC 3355
Ballarat Specialist School is a government special school in Lake Gardens, VIC with about 439 students across all campuses. Its ICSEA is 950, where the national average is 1000.
ICSEA, Language background, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander share, Teaching staff, School website: ACARA School Profile 2025. Source: Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). Enrolments and staff cover all campuses of this school. Terms
About this school, from public sources
Public information describes Ballarat Specialist School as a government special school in Lake Gardens supporting students aged 3 to 18 with mild, moderate or complex intellectual disabilities. The school is organised into four mini-schools — Early Years, Junior, Middle and Senior — allowing programs tailored to different age groups and needs. It maintains a low student-to-staff ratio and describes its focus as building students' independence and skills for life within their community after school.
Often praised
- low student-to-staff ratio
- age-tailored mini-school structure
- focus on student independence
This note was generated from publicly available online sources (the school's website, official pages and online feedback) as at September 2026. It reflects what is said online, not an assessment by SchoolList AU or any government body, and it deliberately records only neutral and positive points. Confidence: medium. Verify anything important with the school. Report an inaccuracy.
NAPLAN
School-level NAPLAN results are published by ACARA on My School under terms that do not allow them to be reproduced here. See Ballarat Specialist School on My School · Why some data is missing
Location and nearby schools
Straight-line distances. List every school within 5 to 50 km.
| School | Suburb | Type | Distance | ICSEA | Students |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballarat Clarendon College | Ballarat | Independent k–12 / combined | 1.5 km | 1,172 | 1,896 |
| Ballarat Grammar | Wendouree | Independent k–12 / combined | 1.8 km | 1,120 | 1,989 |
| Yuille Park Community College | Wendouree | Public k–12 / combined | 2.8 km | 840 | 212 |
| Phoenix P-12 Community College | Sebastopol | Public k–12 / combined | 4.0 km | 947 | 1,495 |
| Ballarat Christian College | Sebastopol | Independent k–12 / combined | 5.0 km | 1,058 | 406 |
Schools with a similar ICSEA in VIC
Same sector and type, ICSEA within 25 points. This is the comparison that separates teaching from postcode.
| School | Suburb | Type | Students | ICSEA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melton Specialist School | Melton | Public special | 387 | 951 |
| Warracknabeal Special Developmental School | Warracknabeal | Public special | 31 | 951 |
| South Gippsland Specialist School | Leongatha | Public special | 59 | 952 |
| Emerson School | Dandenong | Public special | 360 | 953 |
| Naranga School | Frankston | Public special | 164 | 945 |
| Peninsula Specialist College | Dromana | Public special | 160 | 957 |
About this data
Figures are from the latest published datasets and can lag the school by a year. Confirm enrolment rules and catchment boundaries with the school or department before relying on them.