Principal's  News

Our need for community is very real, maybe now more than ever. Whilst the ‘Covid-years’ may now be, thankfully, slipping into a distant memory, it is still true that our lives have changed as a result of that distance it created. The need to be part of something bigger than ourselves, in a depersonalised age in which devices run the risk of making our relationships exist solely on a virtual level, has always been with us.

When we get together with others, there is an opportunity to see ourselves, not as individuals, but as one. Whether it’s a packed house at the MCG full of barracking AFL fans, or hordes of ‘Swifties’ in full voice, the connection that belonging to a wider community offers, can be very powerful and is, perhaps, essential.

At the weekend, a group of BHS school leaders gave up our Saturday to attend researchEd: Ballarat as guests of Ballarat Clarendon College. The goal of researchED is to bridge the gap between research and practice in education. Researchers, teachers and policy makers come together for a day of information-sharing and myth-busting, with national and global education leaders sharing what really works in classrooms and what educational research is telling us about the science behind how the brain retains information and skills. This year was a slight departure and there was a focus on student behaviour and need to belong and the factors that impact upon how students feel about school. There was a challenging statistic in one of the sessions that linked increasing levels of anxiety to school and the link was then made to how these impact on their capacity to learn and experience academic, social and emotional growth. Schools have to be safe and supportive spaces.

One of the keynote speakers was Tim McDonald, the WA CEO of YMCA. In a wide-ranging talk that focused on the importance of teaching positive behaviours in the classroom as a prerequisite for student success, Tim explored the factors that are needed in order for students to flourish. This has to be our aim for all Ballarat High School students: the idea that they grow as people, are healthy physically and emotionally and experience success because the conditions are right for them is something that we can control.  In order for students to flourish at school, he identified 4 key factors: 

• that they feel like they belong; 
• they feel that they are improving towards mastery; 
• they progress towards greater independence; 
• and that they feel connected to a broader social network. 

Tim spoke of the importance of forcing your kids to family get-togethers so that they get to experience that connection - to hear all the old stories and to understand their own sense of identity. In the age of Tik-Tok and Chatrooms, face to face human interactions become critical and a sense of community and connection is needed if we are to flourish and grow.

At Ballarat High School, we seek to create the conditions for our students to flourish through that deep connection to community. At the recent open morning, I spoke to the parents of our potential future students about the wide range of opportunities and programs that we offer - something that makes us unique in relation to so many other schools. All of these opportunities are, by design, chances for our students to feel connected to something bigger than any one individual: be it on the sports field, the stage, the classroom or even an exchange program, developing connections are what drives us. When we talk of our students wearing their unform with pride, it is never in the sense that we want them to be walking advertisements for the BHS brand; it is more about the values that sit behind what we do and what our students feel they belong to when they feel a connection to Ballarat High School. If we get that right, then their conduct in school and beyond will be defined by pride, respect and responsibility.

The power of our community was evident throughout Harmony Week and I am indebted to our student leaders for helping us celebrate our cultural diversity in a way that brought joy to our school whilst also encapsulating our school values. In the assemblies that our student leaders ran for all of our students, they reminded us of the importance of standing for what matters within our community. Students were given an opportunity to make a pledge and stand against racism and stand for inclusion and belonging. One of the many lessons learned from Covid was the fact that, as a planet, we are interconnected and vulnerable if we do not protect each other.

All students should feel safe and should never have to be subjected to racist slurs that look to denigrate an individual or group in order to make them feel like they do not belong. At Ballarat High School, our strength is our diversity and our connection to each other: it is what makes us a community. As principal, I am deeply committed to working together with students, staff and families to ensure all students flourish, thrive and belong.

Ballarat High School is a community that stands together.

Stephan Fields

Principal