Principal's Report

As a community, we have the power to use language in a kind and positive way. 

When you become part of Ballarat High School, you make a commitment that you will choose to be kind instead of being mean; you will promise to lift up and not put down; and you will do all you can to include and not shut out. Taking a pause and choosing your words wisely is a gift that we all have and taking the time to consider the impact of what you intend to say may save so much pain for others.

At BHS, the one thing that we have in common is that we are all different and our uniqueness provides a richness and diversity that helps us be a force for good in the wider community. Our culture is the culture of every family, every student, and every staff member intertwined to form a bond that is incredibly powerful: this power’s strength depends on the actions of every individual.

If a school’s culture comprises of the shared values, beliefs, and practices that shape the environment and atmosphere within a school community, then every member of the BHS community has a role to play in making it the best culture by choosing the words they use. 

We are bound together as a community to learn and grow together, and we must each take responsibility for the part we play in what others experience during their time with us. Learning involves making mistakes, but learning has to ensure that those mistakes are not remade again and again.

At Ballarat High School, we have to know better and always do better.

For years, there has been a common belief that the ability to control the area of the brain that involves decision making doesn’t mature until the age of 25 and this has led to there being less of an expectation on students to make the best choices because they haven’t reached that magic number. 

This is a bit misleading because 25 isn’t some firm endpoint for development and it is wrong to suggest that the brain isn’t developing before then. Because it is. Every day, our students show their movement forward. And it is developing after that age too and as adults we have a responsibility to learn and grow too. 

At BHS we make it pretty clear when our students fall short of the high expectations we have for them - especially when they hurt others. Whilst it is up to us to reteach in order to allow our students to grow, it is up to our students to take an active role in their own learning and not repeat the mistakes of yesterday today.

Because the part of the brain that controls social behaviour and decision making is also the part of the brain where learning and the working memory interacts with the long-term memory to produce learning. If we believe that all of our students have the capacity to learn and grow, and at Ballarat High School we most certainly do, then we have to believe that our students know better and can choose better in their interactions with each other.

Our students know what our high expectations are of them and what constitutes kindness, and they know that they deserve to have those high expectations because it means we believe they can be their very best.  Therefore, there can be no place for name-calling or slurs, for derogatory comments, rumours or nasty words.

But there is a place for calling out and standing up.

There is a place for checking in and showing you care.

There is a place for pride, respect and responsibility.

How we use words, therefore, must align with our actions and I know that the strength of our community relies upon all of us playing a part and defining and maintaining a culture where everyone feels safe and connected.

Stephan Field

Principal