Principal 

Developing and Demonstrating Independence

It was my great pleasure to travel with one of the Year 9 groups to Vietnam during the recent break for the culminating part of the Year 9 Experience. At every destination, we were complimented by other travellers on the engagement, good humour and responsibility shown by the students. This is good, and I would expect nothing less.

The first group, led by Dr Hawthorne, similarly impressed with their approach to the opportunity. One of the key desired outcomes of the trip and for the Year 9 Experience as a whole, is the development of independence and good character. These two go hand in hand; there is nothing admirable about good behaviour when it is not independent. If I force a group to behave well or do the right thing, they haven’t really demonstrated anything – it’s only when they can do that independently that we’re getting close to the aim. 

This week, our Year 7s are canoeing down the Glenelg River, and our Year 5s are off to Sovereign Hill for camp. At the end of last term, the Year 1s and 2s were on camp in Port Fairy – the youngest students to complete an overnight camp in our program. As students get older, the challenge, distance from home, and character and independence required to complete each camp all grow. They say that parenting is the slow act of letting go, and I suppose educating is somewhat the same. 

At the beginning of our Vietnam trip, Mr Cameron, Mrs Hausler, and I were quite strict about sticking together as a group and about students not being unaccompanied in the city during their free time. At our final hotel, a pair of students asked us if they could cross the road (a request not without risk in Ho Chi Minh City) to buy some, really unnecessary, snack food for the bus ride the next day. At the start of the trip we would have said no or one of us gone with them. By this point, they had demonstrated that they could be trusted to safely cross the road independently and to do only what they’d asked before coming back, so we said yes. This is a small example, but one that makes me pleased and appreciative of their approach to the whole trip.

In just a few short years, these Year 9 students will be off into the world and will be able to cross what roads and buy what junk food they choose, unfettered by teachers or parents. Opportunities such as the Year 9 Experience serve a very real purpose in allowing students to develop and demonstrate the independence they will need when this happens.