From the Principal

Dear BMGS Families,

All around the world, schools are quietly but surely being reshaped.

In Finland, students now learn through long-form, interdisciplinary projects rather than siloed subjects. In parts of the UK and the US, schools are replacing traditional exams with exhibitions and real-world portfolios. And here in Australia, universities and employers increasingly value skills like collaboration, critical thinking, and ethical decision-making — not just marks on a page.

This shift is driven by a simple truth: the world our children are growing into differs significantly from the one we knew. The rise of artificial intelligence, the pace of technological change, and the increasingly global nature of work and learning all challenge schools to think differently about what education needs to offer.

One recent example in The Sydney Morning Herald tells of students who now face the additional stress of proving that they — not AI — wrote their assignments. It’s a striking reminder that we’re teaching in a new era, where the tools and realities of modern life are outpacing traditional ways of doing school.

And yet, alongside these challenges are some extraordinary opportunities.

Students today have the chance to:

• Connect globally, working with peers and mentors from other cultures and countries.
• Apply their learning to real problems, from local environmental issues to global social enterprises.
• Discover their voice and purpose, not just what they know, but who they are becoming.

The best schools — here and overseas — are responding by asking better questions. They’re exploring how to partner more genuinely with students, design more meaningful assessments, and create learning experiences that prepare young people to succeed and contribute.

At Blue Mountains Grammar School, we’re deeply engaged in these conversations. Our Strategic Transformation Project has been designed with this future in mind. It’s aspirational — because we believe our young people deserve a future worth aspiring to. And it’s grounded — in our Anglican heritage, values, and commitment to academic and personal growth.

Over the coming months, we’ll share more about where we’re heading as a school through events, conversations, and future editions of this newsletter. We’ll ask big questions together and explore how our school community can keep growing in faith, courage, and possibility.

To honour our past is to carry its spirit forward: to step boldly, as those before us did, into new territory with hope and care.

So we invite you to the question:

What if school could be more?

Not less rigorous — but more relevant. Not less structured — but more human.

We think it can be. And together, we plan to find the way forward.

I look forward to your contribution to this opportunity.

Warm regards

Steven Coote 

Principal