Woodleigh School commenced operations in 1856 as a coeducational school. It was one of the earliest schools in the State of Victoria and the first on the Mornington Peninsula. The original school was housed in a small wooden hall in the Anglican Church grounds near the Frankston oval and played an important role in the early days of 19th Century Victorian colonial history.

It provided not just an educational focus but a moral one for the small but rapidly growing community and early settlers paid one shilling each week to have their children receive a 'sound moral education' to counter the effects of 'larrikinism' after the gold rushes.

In 1970 the school moved to 3.5 hectares of land off Seaview Road in Frankston. This primary campus was named Minimbah - an Aboriginal word meaning 'place of learning'. Not long thereafter the feasibility of establishing a secondary school was investigated.

In 1975 the Senior Campus, "Woodleigh" - retaining the name of the original farm property - was opened, sited on 12.5 hectares of bushland in Baxter. In 1996 further surrounding land was acquired to increase the area of the Senior Campus to 20 hectares and thus protect the unique environment from the effects of development in the area.

From the beginning of 1999 the title of the whole organisation became Woodleigh School, with the Junior Campus retaining the name "Minimbah". Senior Campus now caters for approximately 560 students in Years 7 - 12 with over 60 teaching staff. Junior Campus now caters for approximately 220 students from Early Childhood Centre - Year 6 with over 20 teaching staff.