Season's Greetings

Dear Ballarat High School Community,

2023 has seen less impact on our health with Covid and flu being less prevalent in our community.

Students, and staff has settled better into school life, and this has seen a growth in student outcomes.

Employment opportunities continued for our students, and we have seen positive destination data again. We have seen an increase in School Based Apprenticeships (SBA’s) which allows students to have a better blend of school and work and stay on to complete year 12. Early leavers have still been able to access work or further study. Thanks to our careers team for supporting and guiding students into a positive pathway. 

What we will see in 2024 is the opening of the St Joseph’s Flexible Learning Centre (in the old Humphrey P/S site). This will be a trauma-based learning approach and I know we will have students transferring to there as this learning and wellbeing approach will suit them better. I believe this allow them to continue with their education. It will see a blend of onsite and online learning.

This year our NAPLAN assessments were completed in term 1 for the first time. Our results were also presented in a more parent friendly format. A key indicator for our school is our year 9 NAPLAN results. What was pleasing to see was for every domain (reading, writing, spelling, punctuation & grammar, and numeracy) our students exceeded state and like school results. This gives these students a strong platform for future studies.

Our extra-curricular programs continued to grow. This year we saw the return of international travel with two large groups of students heading off to Germany and Japan as part of our LOTE language programs. Our sport program continued to grow and this year we returned to interstate travel with our students heading to National level basketball. Lots of students participating in our after-school sports opportunities. Thanks to our coaches and parents for supporting our sports program. Our Performing Arts program continued with our school production; “The 39 Steps”, variety night, movie night, band rehearsals, and gigs. The Art technology night was a huge success which showcased the outstanding Art and technology products.

Our capital works project will be completed in the next two weeks with a ceremony area, three flagpoles at the front of the school ready for the 2024 school year.

I would like to thank our staff who have worked tirelessly all year. Special thanks to long serving staff members, Brenda Mawer, Anja Tusak, Andrew Wallace, and Nattalie Schreenan who are finishing this year after long service to both Public Education and Ballarat High School.

May I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year.  I wish the school all the best for the future.

Gary Palmer 

Principal