Principal's Message
Parent Teacher Interviews
What a treat it was to see so many parents/guardians taking an interest in their child's learning. There was a beautiful, community atmosphere present as teachers and other staff interacted with our families to bring progress updates on the learning.
Respect for Staff
As mentioned, I had the chance to meet many of our parents on Thursday and Friday during our Parent-Teacher Interviews. I was struck by the passion and love families have for their children and the dreams they have for the future. It was lovely to speak with them.
Very rarely, when staff interact with parents around tricky issues, passions get the better of discussions and poor behaviour takes over. Staff are sometimes subjected to raised voices, swearing and aggressive behaviour. It is a horrible feeling. I liken it to domestic violence and violence against women and it is behaviour that needs to be challenged and stamped out. Staff do not turn up to any workplace to get abused and sworn at and, as rare as it is, I want it to stop.
Not every decision we make is popular. Now and then we have to hand down consequences and not many parents accept the decision in good grace. Like an umpire in footy, you will always be wrong no matter what you do - but we expect players to accept the call and move on.
I will be instructing any staff who are faced with poor behaviour to disengage. We will keep a record of the abuser's name, what they did, when they did it and who they abused. I will then send a registered letter to that person explaining our policy of Respect. If abuse continues, we will take other measures to make it stop.
I just finished watching Adam Goodes' documentary which outlined how he was harassed by the public in the final years of his playing career. He was bullied in his workplace and had to give up the game to escape the crazy hordes. Unfair.
Staff at BSC will make mistakes. Staff will give you news you don't agree with and call you with stories that are hard to hear. They are doing their jobs and they deserve respect.
On another level, we are accountable too. If any staff member swears at you, raises their voice in anger or behaves poorly towards you; then action will be taken if it is proven to be true. Nobody, staff nor parent, escapes accountability.
Whenever any of this rubbish occurs, I feel sad. We are here for the children and they get lost in the angry mess. I understand there is a lot of anger and frustration in our little town - but leave it at the school gate!
The hundreds of conversations I had last week shows me how beautiful our parents and children are and how much the staff cares. Most probably, the people reading this newsletter are not the ones I need to address. We have a mixed community with many levels of issues. Let's work together to leave society's pollution in the street and make BSC a happy environment to work and learn.
Student Learning Focus
In Term 4, we are running with a different structure and placing Student Learning squarely on the agenda. We have new ways of recording data to see where students stand with their levels. Some students are struggling with their learning, whilst some are accelerating - and we need to respond strongly as a profession.
All staff will be receiving training in the new set up in the last few weeks of Term 3 ready for the Term 4 uptake. This will include bolstering our response to behavioural concerns in class, coaching of staff in classrooms to improve practice and stronger applications of our expectations of behaviour across the board. "In class, on time, on task, learning" will be the mantra and we are all excited by this journey.
We will be informing students in the lead up so they are aware of what is expected of them. We look forward to your support of this initiative.
New Principal Search
With the retirement of Mr. Ian Hall, the Department of Education will go through a process to appoint a new principal to the school. Bairnsdale Secondary College students and staff deserve ONLY THE BEST so we look forward to informing you of the timeline and process when more details come to light.
In the meantime, you have got me till the end of the year! I thank the community for their trust in allowing me the privilege of serving your children. Our Assistant Principals and Leadership group have the 'right stuff' to help guide us through this transition period.
Student Testing
It has been very interesting to view the results of student testing which has occurred in Years 7-10 over the last 5 weeks. More and more students are showing interest in the tests and what their results reveal. Making the results visible for students will be the next step in the process and we look forward to growing this initiative over the rest of the year.
Well done to all students who tried their best and also showed an interest in the end result.