Headmaster's

Message

The Ecosystem of a School

Earlier this year, many Year 11 students participated in the inaugural Winter Ball. This event was conceptualised as a rite of passage and symbolic hand-over from one generation to the next. This week I interviewed students from this same cohort of young people who had made the short list of applicants for the positions of 2022 School Captain and Vice-Captain. These candidates had already been through a rigorous process involving a written application and an initial interview. In talking with them about their views on all manner of topics, including leadership and change, it reinforced my confidence in the next generation of adults and made me glad to be one of those who will soon place the future in their hands.

One of the topics these candidates spoke about very eloquently, was community; a theme very close to their hearts as well as mine and integral to the history, culture and future of this School. Related to the topic of community is that of unity; the theme I have assigned to our Staff Conferences this year. As I appoint new members to the School Executive and the wider School leadership team, I am reminded that the Staff team began the School year in January considering unity through the lens of the body. Just like our various bodily organs, we have considered the different roles we each play in our School and the essential nature of each contribution to the effective functioning of the School. Likewise, we have considered our interdependence and the crucial way in which we each sustain and enhance each others’ lives. We have also considered the way teamwork makes the School more efficient and effective and can be enhanced by leadership.

Those of us who are analytical can sometimes imagine that human systems, like schools, work much like machines. Machines are predictable because they are connected in well-defined ways, one gear driving another, some faster, some slower. If we remove a component or dismantle the machine, we no longer expect it to operate. Living systems aren’t like this. They are an ecosystem connected in mysterious ways. The ecosystem of a school involves innumerable connections of various types. When alterations are made, we never quite know what the effect will be. 

Machines operate such that, when one component moves, other components are compelled to respond in particular ways. The movement begins with the engine or motor, without which the machine does nothing. Living systems aren’t like this. The ecosystem of a school consists of a multitude of actors, each with their own innate independence and autonomy. What motivates and keeps a school going is the passion and commitment of every person; students, staff and parents. The energy and movement of a school comes from everywhere and the magic is in coordinating all of these actions.

The components of a machine move and all this movement causes friction and heat as well as wear and tear. Living systems are a lot like this too. All of the actors in the system rub up against one another all the time, pushing and pulling each other, annoying one another, disappointing one another. Just as we lubricate machines with oil to reduce this friction, effective human systems lubricate relationships with respect, encouragement, empathy, grace and forgiveness.

Schools are not simple places; no human system is. They will always surprise us and require us all to keep learning. However, effective collaboration is the only way we humans have every achieved anything of worth. Blue Mountains Grammar is committed to effective collaboration, between staff, students and parents. As we renew the School’s leadership team and place a badge on the lapels of the next generation of student leaders, I am confident that, despite the complexity, our leaders will coordinate the endeavours of every individual in our efforts to make our School all that it can be.

Mr Ian Maynard

Headmaster