The college, whose namesake is its location of Woodvale, opened in 1985 for 200 Year 8 students, and expanded its age range yearly until 1990 when its first class of Year 12 students commenced. In 2012, Woodvale Senior High School became an Independent Public School and a School Board was established. With much deliberations from the school and its community, the school was renamed Woodvale Secondary College. Along with the change was a minor change in the school emblem as well as the replacement of their motto ‘Grow to wisdom’ with ‘Your life, your goals, our world’. A large plaque with the former emblem and motto is on display in the schools gardens. In 2014, the school underwent major upgrades, including a new administration office, a "Hospitality & Function centre" for curricular activities for students studying hospitality, and a "Sports centre" gymnasium for physical education and the specialist basketball and football programs. The former two were officially opened by Luke SimpkinsMP, on 15 August 2014.
Specialist programs
Woodvale Secondary College currently offers specialist programs in basketball, football and music. Woodvale also offers placement to top performing students from years 8 to 10 in the Academic Extension Program across all core subjects.
Facilities
The campus wide Information Technology Network provides a wide range of digital media capabilities and professional level software, and compares favourably with any of the best equipped schools in the nation. The Trade Training centre provides practical activities for students studying hospitality and subjects alike, such as Home Economics. The Sports centre provides for physical education and the specialist basketball and football programs. It is only used for curricular purposes and school assemblies, and is not accessible during Recess and Lunch periods, unless students are given instructions otherwise. The iCentre is a student hub used for independent studying and socialising before school, during recess and lunch, and after school. The iCentre is also the headquarters of the Woodvale Homework Club. A range of community facilities are close at hand including sporting venues, public libraries and shopping centres. The Craigie Leisure Centre, which provides excellent swimming and indoor fitness facilities, is a kilometre from the campus, with Sorrento Quay along Whitfords Avenue. Local council owned Tennis Courts adjacent to the campus are used for lower school physical education classes in tennis.
Achievements
Academically, students perform at a level above the state average. The Academic Extension Programme receives good community support, the Music Program sees 20% of the student population participating in an instrumental program and the school each year presents a number of students who achieve well in the WACE examinations. Woodvale performed above the national average in 2018 NAPLAN Testing. In 2014, Woodvale was voted among the top 50 secondary schools in Perth.
Woodvale's house system consists of four houses, name after constellations. The house system forms the basis of sporting competitions within the school. Sporting events, such as the house sports carnival or the swimming carnival, are isolated to each year group. Students are organised into their houses by the first letter of their surname, unless directed otherwise.
