Journalism

Feature Article on Rod Bate 

by Madeleine Green (Year 10)

Mr. Bate - is a fantastic teacher and an asset to the Blackburn High school community. For 39 Years, Mr. Bate has served Blackburn High as a Maths teacher and assistant leader for Freeman house. With a variety of interests from martial arts to theatre, Mr. Bate has a trove of wisdom and stories to share. 

Some might say he’s an average teacher, but that’s just being mean. Catch the pun? A joke that Mr. Bate would love as he himself can always be relied up on to brighten people’s day with a witty shirt, like the one he is wearing in the image below. This is just one of the qualities that place him far above an average teacher. 

Still, on the topic of shirts, we come to one of Mr. Bate’s many contributions to the school over the years. Few people know that Mr. Bate was the brilliant mind behind our House T-shirt Day. A day of fun and colour as each student wears their house t-shirt and while the vibrant colours are distinctly different, the day instils a sense of belonging in each student, both to their house and the school as a whole. When a student or teacher starts at Blackburn High, they are provided with a t-shirt with their house name and colour that they can wear with pride, embracing house spirit, at events like the swimming carnival, athletics, and of course the aforementioned house T-shirt day. This idea was proposed by Mr Bate to give every student a chance to be involved. 

Mr Bate has seen the house system develop, influencing its trajectory from when it was proposed with unique colours like orange and purple, to what it is today; four interwoven communities, connecting and interacting in friendly competition. For example, the House Performing Arts program is one Mr Bate is particularly fond of, possibly one of his favourite things about Blackburn. It is not only the performances of each house that impress him, but the work that goes on behind the scenes, the rehearsals and creations by the students. A likely addition to the appeal is the fact that Mr Bate himself is interested in theatre – one of his many interests. 

The house system’s fundraisers is another thing Mr Bate is proud of. The house fundraisers support the charity related to their name, a wonderful thing to do that can create positive waves of change and raise awareness. 

Mr Bate’s time at Blackburn began long ago, as he started his career straight out of University where he studied technology. He is quite interested in computing, and believes if he hadn’t chosen to be a Maths teacher he would be doing something in that field. However, he chose to be a teacher. He states “Maths is very important , just about everyone uses it some way in their life, you can’t predict what type you’ll end up using but people change careers and do different things in their life all the time”. Maths is an important part of life and when Mr Bate discovered he seemed to have a knack for explaining it he decided teaching was what he wanted to do.  He is passionate about helping students learn, as well as enjoying the content. Admirably, he became a teacher to make a difference. Mr Bate loves that his job can allow him to give a student back their confidence in the subject and has felt very pleased when past students have approached him to tell him how much he helped them (and after 39 years, he has sure helped a lot of students!)

In 39 years, he has also seen a lot of change in his time. He holds the record as the current teacher who has been at the school the longest (narrowly beating Ms Crescia by a term) and has seen the school at its smallest (650 students) and its largest (1400). Since the day he started at Blackburn, the vast majority of the buildings have been renovated or completely rebuilt and the uniform has changed three times!

When he’s not teaching, Mr Bate occupies himself by running the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Club, watching and reading about history (If he could have taught another subject it would have been history, he is very interested in it) or Fantasy. He is a keen reader, and previously writer, writing stories online and plays that have been performed. He still plays Dungeons and Dragons with his University friendship group. He has played Rugby, Badminton and did martial arts for 15 years! 

With such a wealth of knowledge, range of skills, and time at Blackburn, Rod Bate has plenty of wise words for students here at BHS. His advice is to find a balance between fun and school. “Try hard but still have fun and get involved with HPA, Sport, Clubs etc”.

It was a pleasure to interview Mr Bate and listen to the insights he has to offer. 

Madeleine Green has written this feature article as part of the Year 10 Journalism elective. The brief was to interview a member of the Blackburn High School community and write a feature article using the interview transcript.