A lot of the time in life, it seems that we only get to truly realise the significance of something when we get to the end. When you reach a parting of the ways, or a sense of completion or closure, perspective can provide the insight needed to fully comprehend what just happened and what it really meant.

This can be bittersweet, as Joni Mitchell pointed out, when she sang, ‘don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone…’

As I type my final newsletter article, and pack away the paraphernalia that I have accumulated over the course of the last five years, this reflection does not resonate with me.

Rather, I am reminded of something that I have known from my first day here: Woodmans Hill Secondary College is an accepting place and its community has always been prepared to work together to get the very best for our students because the best is what they deserve. This is the reason why I became a teacher: to ensure that all students were given the chance to achieve and grow.

This is something that I have never taken for granted and the privilege of leading this learning community has been a rewarding and humbling experience every step of the way and something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Ballarat East is a long way from the banks of the River Mersey, but I have always felt at home here and always felt accepted and supported.

For schools are not made of bricks and mortar: they are made of people with dreams, fears and aspirations. It is a privilege to work in a school, especially a school like Woodmans Hill, because you get the opportunity to collaborate with others to shape young peoples’ lives. We are a school with a clear vision of what the many versions of success might look like for our students, driven by the values of respect, determination and the pursuit of personal excellence.

What happens in schools matters and all students need safety and security to grow and thrive.

We teach our students that progress is not always linear and that set-backs can provide them with the impetus for significant learning and growth to occur. Through self-motivation, we want our students to feel optimistic for their futures and secure in the knowledge that their endeavours are valued and celebrated by the college.

The future is optimistic for Woodmans Hill Secondary College.

In the newly appointed principal, Graham Broadbent, we have a highly skilled school leader with the experience and drive to match the community’s aspiration and ambition for its students. I know that the staff, students and families will make him feel at home here and I am confident that he will recognize, as I did, the honour of leading such an amazing school.

On reflection, perhaps optimism should now be replaced by ‘confidence’ because, for the third year running, Woodmans Hill Secondary College has achieved a set of results that will be the envy of many fee paying and state schools in Ballarat.

Once again, we sit behind Clarendon and just 0.1 % behind Grammar in terms of percentage of 40+ Study Scores. Our average Study Score is equal top in state schools in our area and our NAPLAN data has significantly improved this year to make us higher than state average.

Our VM students have owned 2023 and the destinations of all our Year 12 students, so varied and exciting, are the stuff of dreams because dreams are made at Woodmans Hill Secondary College.

How far we have come in five years and how further we’ll go in the next five!

It is important for us all to recognize that this is not a fluke- it’s been happening for the last three years and it will continue to happen because momentum and belief are on Woodmans Hill side.

You cannot argue with consistency and it speaks of a staff who have worked hard, in every aspect of what they do, to follow our commitment to ‘learning from and with each other in order to optimize student academic, social and emotional growth’.

We are ‘THAT’ school and we should be proud of who we are.

There is a real sense within our students and families, captured in the survey data that they completed this year, that they recognize that we are a school that is inclusive, that has staff who care and that Woodmans is a place where more and more students feel connected.

Exam results, however important, are not the only indicators of how far we’ve journeyed or what matters. Evidence of our impact it is in the caliber of our student leaders; it is in our Hands on Learning and Learning Support programs; it is in our Pride group, our Wellbeing support, our impact in the wider community; it is in our completion of TAFE courses, apprenticeships, securing of full-time employment; it is in our Wannik and First Nations groups; and it is in the empathy, compassion and care for each other that our students regularly show… the list goes on and on!

Not everything is perfect here and there is still so much to improve upon, but knowing this and knowing how that you can change things for the better is all that matters.

I wish this community every success in the future and thank you all for the most rewarding five years of my professional life.

Stephan Fields

Principal

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