Editorial:

Deputy Headmaster

It Takes A Village

“It takes a village to raise a child,” is an ancient saying we believe to be true at Blue Mountains Grammar School. We believe that children and young people grow best in an environment rich in trusting and meaningful relationships both with their peers, and with adults who know and care about them. We also believe that when children and young people engage with the ideas, challenges and experiences of the adults in their village, new horizons will be opened to them. This is social capital.  

While most of us here in the Blue Mountains live in villages in a geographical sense, the nature of modern life is such that many of the benefits that once accrued to our forebears in their more traditional villages are no longer experienced by our children and young people. Too often in this modern world, we fail to do community as previous generations once did. 

My great-grandparents chose to raise their young family in Woodford back in the 1930s. My grandfather and his sisters learned about faith from the volunteer Sunday School teachers at the Presbyterian Church, they learned to love music as they practiced piano at a neighbour’s house, they learned to enjoy healthy competition as they and their neighbours held table tennis tournaments, and they learned to enjoy exploring their creativity by putting on plays at the Woodford Academy under the supervision of local amateur directors. As an older man, my grandfather spoke with particular pride of the courage he found as a teenager working alongside the men and women of Woodford to fight the bushfires of the 1930s. Throughout his life, my grandfather reflected warmly on the impact his neighbours had on his young life.  

So, if we believe that it does in fact take a village to raise a child we must ask first how as a School we can build a modern village, and second, how we might leverage  the power of our village to benefit our children and young people.  

While there are a great many benefits to be derived from the online world, the interactions between children and adults that sit at the core of a modern village happen best in real life and in person. There is a gritty reality experienced in real-time when children and young people meet the adults of their village in person that is far cry from our too-highly curated online version of life. Interacting in person promotes honesty and vulnerability, and allows our children to explore ideas and possibilities through the lived experience of the adults of our village. 

We want to invite our parents back on Campus and into the lives of our children and young people, and we have a few specific ways in which we would like to do so. 

Firstly, we would like to develop a register of parents and carers who are willing to visit the School as guest speakers and presenters, and to make this register available to staff. While many parents can be humble about their own lives and achievements, the reality is that simply by living your lives as parents, business people, professionals and community members you have a great deal to offer our children and young people. We are looking for speakers to visit classes, House and Stage Meetings and Assemblies on a range of academic, pastoral and careers-related topics. Imagine for a moment the power of an accountant speaking about finance in a Commerce class, a cancer survivor telling their story of overcoming challenge, or a nurse speaking about a career of service. These would be influential experiences in any child’s life. 

Secondly, we are seeking to grow a register of parents and carers who may be willing to take on students for work experience placements. Our parent body has an extraordinarily diverse set of professional backgrounds, from police officers to surgeons, barristers to vintners. We would like to leverage the benefits of this diversity to expand the horizons of our children and young people; to work as a modern village to ensure that our students have the greatest possible opportunities in life. 

If you are willing to be part of our modern Blue Mountains Grammar School village (even if you are not sure what you might offer) please email me at hoss@bmgs.nsw.edu.au to begin the conversation. I will look forward to working alongside you here in our village to grow the social capital of our children and young people. 

Owen Laffin

Deputy Headmaster – Head of Senior School