PRINCIPAL REPORT

From the College Principal

Dear Parents, Students and Friends,

It was wonderful to have our first school assembly for the year yesterday, albeit, using Teams to stream it into classrooms. I was pleased and proud to induct our student leaders for 2021. I wish them all the best in their various roles, and am confident they will serve the school brilliantly, and uphold our values.

After presenting our leaders, I took the opportunity to remind our entire school community that we all have a role in rejecting and calling out all forms of discrimination, and to have zero tolerance of any form of bullying and harassment. 

Two of our school values are Respect and Empathy. I call on all members of our school community to live these values. These values are incompatible with any behaviour or attitude which leads to discrimination of any type, and therefore, we must reject such behaviour, name it for what it is, and stamp it out. I urge every member of our community to call out and report discriminatory, bullying or harassing behaviour whenever they see it, without exception.

Every individual’s personal attributes are protected under law, and by our school rules and values. Whether it be their gender, religious beliefs, cultural background, sexual orientation, disability, age, or physical features, this school is committed to the protection of these attributes. 

To this end, we have developed and published a School Statement of Commitment to Anti-Discrimination. It outlines what our commitment is, the complete list of protected attributes, and information about how to report instances of discriminatory behaviour, including to the new position of dedicated contact officer. That document is published below and on our website. I commend it to you.

One of the great antidotes to discrimination is to build a culture of diversity and inclusion. Our new house names, a full account of which is published elsewhere in this edition of Highlights, is one such cultural marker. Our house names include a woman, directly associated with Brighton Secondary College, who fought against and overcame deep seated institutional sexism, another woman, of Jewish decent, who fought for women’s suffrage, an eminent Australian jurist who had the courage to declare himself a proud gay man, and an aboriginal Australian man who was instrumental in extinguishing underlaying racist and exclusionary legal principles in our country. 

You will need to read further on in Highlights to see who these people are, but we are confident that this group are far more representative of the diversity of our school. The fact that each, in their own way, fought for inclusion and acceptance of a segment of people in our society, is representative, and powerfully symbolic, of our values.

I wish all our families, students and staff a happy and productive year. 

We look forward to continuing to serve our community.

Yours sincerely, 

Richard Minack 

Principal