5 minute read
FROM THE HEADMASTER
Mr Adam Heath
Around May each year we make the pilgrimage to the northwest of Victoria and visit Mildura. Once again, it was a joy to sit and have a meal together with current families, some from our recent past and those who are considering our School for their children. It is a long drive but fortunately I have a brother who flies light planes as a hobby. For the past four or so years I have convinced him to fly us both to Mildura.
The spectacular views from the cockpit reveal the season that is unfolding for our rural communities by the extent of the green tinge, signalling emerging crops. This year looks to have been a universally good start, judging by the promising crops that were rising from the earth along the entire journey. Despite much higher input costs, there is a widespread sense of optimism among our rural families.
More than anything else, flying at 4500 feet on the glorious day that we encountered affords expansive views to long horizons and, for some reason, with this comes a sense of perspective. In this post-pandemic era, as we return to almost-normal rituals and events across the School, we are encountering very high levels of illness across the School, be it COVID-19, or one of the numerous cold and flu bugs working their way through our community. On the one hand, we are rejoicing in sports carnivals, Bina Day in the Junior School, the Round Square Dance and once again undertaking service activities, such as the Red Shield Appeal and Can the Chapel (our annual food drive for Anglicare). On the other, we are also needing to take extraordinary care of one another as some of these bugs knock us flat, such is their severity and virulence.
But we have craved these community gatherings; it has been so heartening to have parents join us for events and for us to be able to have the important incidental conversations that form the basis of the powerful trusting relationships that underpin our holistic approach to educating children.
COVID has taught us that it takes a connected village of committed and like-minded adults who believe in the idea that to develop both character and intellect in our young people, we need to provide them with challenging, empowering, and in-person, connective experiences. And that learning from a screen, despite everyone’s best efforts, is no match for this.
Another perspective that I sense we are craving is what to make of this postpandemic world and how best to approach it all. I enjoyed hearing from Professor George Siemens from the University of Adelaide earlier in the year, who said, in the simplest possible terms: our post-pandemic world is more complex… there is greater ambiguity, be that in financial outlooks through to identifying emerging social trends. In the face of this, the Professor identified a number of traits that will support organisations to manage the likely turbulence ahead.
1. The first two are ‘Trustworthy
Leadership’ and ‘Trusting Followers’.
Trusting relationships have long been the cornerstone of a Ballarat Grammar education. Organisations will rely on
‘champions of the cause’: That is, we have and will continue to be reliant on our parents and community members advocating for the more complex but utterly important holistic approach to educating children that is at the heart of
Ballarat Grammar.
2. Leadership across the School, from both students and staff, needs to be valuesdriven. The renewed values of our School, which you can see on the adjoining page, are serving us well to remind our community that our values are the basis for all our decisions and actions.
3. Organisations that prosper in the future will be simultaneously accountable and innovative. Our hope is that the
School has always been accountable for providing the best possible preparation for our young people for life. The pandemic, if nothing else, has shown that we can be innovative and agile whilst retaining the important history and essence of our School. You will see much written in this edition of Boomalacka about nurturing creativity, a foundation in preparing our young people as the innovative leaders that they will need to be in the future.
4. Good communication is essential.
Whilst the School’s communication is effective to some degree, we recognise we communicate with many audiences across many platforms, and we are currently reviewing how we communicate to ensure that our communication reaches you in appropriate ways.
5. Finally, thinking more globally about the systems that comprise our School, as well as the systems with which we interrelate, is crucial to being strategic in managing change and adapting to the future. An emerging trend for Australia appears to be universal concern for our children’s future and how climate change might negatively impact this.
One example of how we are working to respond to this concern is through the installation of 640kw of photovoltaic panels at the School. With a ‘pay-back’ period on these panels of as little as three and a half years, and a panel life of 15 to 20 years, the economics – the financial sustainability – let alone the environmental reasoning, make these installations a ‘no-brainer’. Our aim is to finish the installation of a megawatt (1000 kw) of solar over the next four years and then install a large Tesla battery to power our boarding community each night, to gradually achieve carbon neutrality for our campus.
Above all else, I hope that as you have progressively reconnected with the School – through the joyous return of our reunions, to attending parents’ events, to watching your children participate in performances, sporting carnivals, events or games – that you are reminded of the essence of our School: good, humble people who are committed to the much more complex but worthwhile approach of holistically educating our children. More than ever before, our society needs the diverse perspective and grounding of these future leaders.
