Ms Trull, who graduated from the ESU in December, says the school helped turn her life around after bullying and depression made life at her previous high school unbearable.

“I was being bullied, I’ve been bullied basically my whole life and it was getting to the point where I was really suicidal and my friend told me about the school so I looked into it and eventually I got enrolled there in year 9,” she said.

“I had run away twice, I was very depressed and I was self-harming and I reckon if it wasn't for that school I wouldn’t be talking to you today.”

Even after graduating, Ms Trull still draws strength from the staff at the school, who she says will be “family for life”.

But she will be among the last generation of students to benefit from the ESU’s dedicated staff, with Anglicare Victoria confirming the school’s closure yesterday, and she says she and other students worry for other troubled kids like her.

“Everybody there believes they should not be shut down because there are a bunch of other kids that are going to need the help we got,” she said.

Anglicare Victoria regional director Carolyn Wallace confirmed the school would close its doors at the end of the year, but said she was confident the students would cope well in mainstream schools.

“We will continue to operate exactly as we are for the rest of 2016 and we’re going to work with students and families and schools to make sure there’s an individual education plan for all students for 2017,” she said.

“So that will mean instead of coming to the ESU next year we’ll be finding other educational programs for all students and we will support our students in those environments.

“I'm also aware that it is a big change for students and that we’ll need to be very encouraging and supportive as they change their school arrangements for 2017.”

Ms Wallace said the organisation had made the decision to close the school as it did not meet state government registration criteria, but was unable to say why those criteria could not be met.

“Primarily we provide youth and family services which is different to being a registered school,” she said.