COLLEGE
10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Surf Coast Insight - Celebrating Past to Present

Each week, we will ask two of our staff members about the changes they have seen since the beginning of their journey at Surf Coast Secondary College in 2012 to now.

This week, we will hear from two of our teachers Brad Foss and Nicola Hooley who have been with us since the beginning!

Brad Foss

What were you doing before you started working at SCSC in 2012?

I was a Physics/ science / maths teacher at Bellarine SC where I was employed for 10 years. When I applied there for the Physics position, I was sent the details for being the new Groundsman – almost took them up on the offer just to ‘get down the coast”

What has been the biggest change to the College since you started back in 2012?

How big the staff and student cohort has grown and how much technology has become an integral part of my/ our teaching.

What has been the most positive or influential moment during your career at SCSC?

In our first year, I was doing a science experiment with Year 8’s and expecting them to do the standard written scientific report when Scott Diamond wandered in and asked “Why does the report have to be written like a traditional report, could they make a movie?” Light bulb moment for me and opened my eyes to new ways of communicating knowledge.

The second was a phone call from parent who wanted to thank Year 9 staff ( back in 2014) for opening their daughters eyes to the big picture. Seems in the middle of dinner daughter instigated a conversation about Nuclear power in Australia as an alternative energy source and was happily quoting pros and cons to the astonished parents. Normally dinner was talk about netball and going to the beach.

How has your time at the College impacted you both professionally and personally?

The staff are all on the young side and trying to keep up with their enthusiasm and willingness to try new things at my age has been rewarding while very tiring at times.

Keeping up to date with all the technology that keeps on being introduced has made me not only very tech savvy but at the forefront of some great teaching tools.

There is an ethos in the school that we can do better so we are always looking at tweaking what we have and developing new and exciting teaching tools for the best student outcomes.

What are you looking forward to about the future of SCSC and your role working with young people here?

When we started we were very focussed on students learning important skills

( learning/ behaviour/ digital/ communication) but over the years we have become quite curriculum driven. I am keen on finding the middle ground where students can also explore their learning and emphasis is on discovery.

Nicola Hooley

What were you doing before you started working at SCSC in 2012?

I emigrated from England in 2009 and started working at Torquay P-9 school as the HAPE teacher with years 7 to 9, which was the original high school in Torquay before we were formed into a stand-alone high school as Surf Coast Secondary College.

What has been the biggest change to the College since you started back in 2012?

There have been numerous changes from the obvious size of the school population, to the number of staff, increase in facilities, the use of technology and the change in curriculum. As a PE teacher, the sporting facilities we now have has made a tremendous positive impact on our program.