Across the Principal's Desk

There is no doubt that this will be a year we will remember for a long time; a unique year in education. The impact of the Coronavirus is something that we have all experienced in one way or another. However, we have all experienced it in different ways – it has hit harder for some than others. There has been a global impact. If I had been told in January the way in which our school year was going to play out, I don’t think I would have believed it! I’m not suggesting that it is all over, but here we are at the end of the year and we can be proud of what we have achieved at Beaufort Secondary College and across our school community – well done to everyone! 

We finished off the year differently this year due to COVID restrictions changing the way we needed to do things. In the last couple of weeks, our Year 7, 8 and 9 students attended camps at various times. They would normally be at other times during the year but it actually worked very well, as I think the active and interactive experience that camps provide was just what everyone needed at this particular time. All of camps involved our students getting outdoors and being active. Valuable skills were learned in relation to teamwork, leadership, problem solving and working cooperatively. Our Year 7 students went to Halls Gap, our Year 8 students went to the coast and our Year 9 students headed to Marysville. I was able to spend time at a couple of these camps and really appreciated the time participating in activities and chatting with our students. I enjoyed it immensely – they are terrific young people to be around. I’m also proud to say that the feedback about our students on each of these camps was outstanding and very complimentary. Thank you to the students for their enthusiastic and respectful involvement. A huge thank you to all of our teachers who looked after our students on the camps. It is a big commitment to be away from home and families for that period of time – without that dedication, we wouldn’t be able to provide our students with such rich learning opportunities. 

We finished off our year with a Presentation Assembly. We would normally do this as a formal Presentation Evening but of course we had to do that in a modified way this year. Thank you to Ms McGinty for organising the assembly, and to our 2021 School Leaders who helped with leading proceedings. Thank you also to one of our Year 7 students, Lucy Turville, who brilliantly sang and performed a song she wrote and composed on the piano. She did an amazing job! The whole assembly went particularly well. It was terrific to be able to present our students with awards this year rather than waiting until next year. However, without our Year 12 results, which will come out on December 30th, we will need to wait until 2021 until we can finalise awards for our students in their final year. Congratulations to all of our students who walked across the stage to receive awards – well done! I would also like to acknowledge all of our students for ‘having a go’ in some way, shape or form this year – that would have looked different for all of our students because we are all different people. We have all learned skills this year in coping, resilience and working independently. So, well done to everyone!

We would like to thank our students for continuing with their learning under challenging circumstances throughout 2020. Thank you to our parents and our community for supporting us as a school. We value the understanding and cooperation that we received. Thank you to our School Council for continuing to guide the school through virtual meetings and in particular, Colin Gerrard, as President, for his unwavering support. Finally, a huge thank you to our staff who have been on the front-line, continuing to provide an education to our young people under conditions they never thought would be possible – and they did it while facing the challenge of supporting their own families at the same time – literally concurrently – no mean feat! Well done and thanks to all! 

We look forward to what will hopefully be a more settled year in 2021 but no doubt there will be challenges of some description… and they will help us to grow and learn some more!

Karl Shier

Principal