Principal's News

At the time of writing, there are BHS students representing our community as part of a Japan Exchange Tour, connecting with their peers at Meisei High School on the island of Hokkaido. This time next year will see students travelling to Europe as part of a cultural exchange visiting Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In November, we will have students journeying to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam as part of the World Challenge program that we offer. Within our current alumni program we have former students living and working in Hollywood, San Francisco, New York, London, Oxford, Canada, touring the world and making lives for themselves in every other continent in between. Our students build cities, build families and lives worth living, entertain millions, work hard and make a difference.

As someone who went to a school whose only noteworthy alumni was the drummer out of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (now that ages me), that roll call of realised potential and endless possibilities is something that I am in awe of and want all our students to believe is theirs for the taking.

To be a BHS student is to be a global citizen: someone who sees the endless opportunities that their future holds and who are ready to seize it with both hands.  We want our students to trust in the idea that anything is possible if they are prepared to make it happen. Our students are so much more than they often give themselves credit for and if we achieve one thing as a community, I want it to be that our students have the resilience, determination and self-belief to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of those that they care for. The future belongs to our current students.

Looking back over Term 3 fills me with incredible pride and the sense that you can stay on Sturt Street and still have access to so many life-changing opportunities.  When you put all the things that our students have achieved together over the course of the last ten weeks, it speaks volumes of what a big term it has been and the power that they have as agents of change when they work together. When I consider the performances, apprenticeships, fund and awareness raising events, excursions, enrichment activities, camps, cafes and coffee mornings, lessons, essays and learnings, competitions, conferences and community events, you get a sense of the commitment our staff have to the ideal of what Ballarat High School stands for: a school dedicated to opportunity, excellence and connection. 

I feel nothing epitomises this ideal more than our current Year 12s who we begin to say goodbye to after 6 years of friendships, connections, growth and celebrations. Their Valedictory and final assemblies will no doubt be emotional affairs, but this reflects how deeply we will miss their presence as a year group and the profound impact that they have had on our school. I’ve said it before, but I feel incredibly fortunate to have had this group of students as my first (of many, I hope!) graduating Year 12 students. As they move forward into so many exciting futures, I hope that they feel that they have all that they need to write their story in large letters across the world. Only they can say what success means for them, but if they set their hearts on their own goals, I know they will all do something amazing; something that principals will be writing about in newsletters for many years to come. 

On behalf of our staff, students and community, to the Graduating Class of 2024, I wish them the very best for their futures and ask them to always remember… once a BHS student, always a BHS student.

Stephan Fields

Principal