No Second Chance

Mr Mike Wallace

HPE Teacher / First XV Coach / Leadership Office

Paul Stanley, Warren Luff, Ian Healey and Matt Speakman

In 2013, Andy and Mel McElrea and their foundation N2C, were introduced to TSS through the Evans family. Josh and Jaxon Evans both attended TSS and their father John is a keen motor sport enthusiast. Jaxon was driving go-karts for their N2C racing team at the time under the banner of McElrea Racing. After Jaxon left school he went to work for the McElrea Racing team and started to race for them in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Championship. He got second in B class in 2015, then progressed to A class for 2016 where he finished second again.

In 2017 he moved up to the Carrera Cup championship and finished 4th in preparation for 2018. He went on to dominate the 2018 Australia Porsche Carrera Cup Championship. He actually clinched the title on the streets of Surfers Paradise at the GC600. He then won a world wide Porsche young driver shootout in Germany, and this year is racing in Europe as a professional Porsche race driver. N2C stands for No Second Chance. The aim of the foundation is to introduce secondary school students to the idea of making positive decisions in their lives and the fact that positive decisions attract positive consequences but, on the other hand poor decisions can have significant negative consequences for which there may be ‘No Second Chance’. The message is delivered through the life stories of some significant and confronting speakers.

Matt Speakman was a professional motor cycle racer who was hit one night by a drunk driver. Matt’s pillion passenger was killed and Matt was left a paraplegic. Whilst Matt has gone on to have a successful sporting career, his life and that of his passenger were irreparably changed by the actions of a young man, drunk, behind the wheel. Another speaker, Paul Stanley, lost his son Matt in a one-punch incident at a party when he was 15 years old. The alcohol fuelled attack killed Matt and meant that his 17 year-old attacker went to jail. Paul’s story is a very real and devastating story of loss, and the anguish that a family has felt over the needless death of their son.

The final speaker is Warren Luff. A professional race driver who has stood on the podium of the Bathurst 1000 on five occasions and also won other significant Super Car events around Australia. Warren’s story is one of hope, and how if you follow your dreams and make positive decisions, then the outcomes can be beyond what you could have imagined.

The N2C team have been visiting TSS for seven years and speaking to the Year 12 students during Leadership Week. Their message is as poignant now as it has been over the seven years and hundreds of boys have benefitted from hearing it.

Business Leadership at TSS

Ms Jessica Prouten

Head of Department Business & Enterprise

Headlines around Australia have recently been trumpeting the importance, firstly, of STEM and then STEAM as the future source of many jobs in Australia. It seems that in pursuing this agenda some have forgotten an important point; that in the future all jobs will be in Business (whether in STEM, STEAM or other industries), be it a profit based corporation, or a not-for profit business. All the boys who leave TSS and enter the workforce will be entering some kind of business organisation. It is therefore of paramount importance that they have an understanding of how the business world works. Back in 2009, at the suggestion of Mr Greg Wain, the Business Department were ‘looking for opportunities to engage the wider community and utilise the wealth of experience from business mentors, whilst offering students opportunity for more experiential learning.’ It was with this in mind that the original “Business Leadership Passport Program” was launched.

The original format of the program included activities each term such as; guest speaker presentations, workshops and enterprise days where students could practise their salesmanship on the captive audience of TSS students.

In the first Year 12 students achieved one of the three levels, with Bronze, Silver and Gold available to Years 10, 11 and 12 students.

Having now been running for 10 years, the decision was made at the end of 2018 to review the program. Specifically the new focus was to incorporate boys who may be interested in business, or have an entrepreneurial bent, but who could not, due to the constraints of the new curriculum take one of the business subjects. We also made the decision to shorten the name, now referring to the program as ‘Business Leadership’.

Thus far these changes have been very well received with over 50students from Years 10-12 signing up to participate in the program. This year we have also incorporated attendance at the TSS Foundation Business Breakfasts. The first of these featured the CEO of the Commonwealth Games Corporation and at the end of the breakfast Mr Grevemberg came over to the boys table, pulled out a chair and spent time discussing the business of the Commonwealth Games with them. We’ve also been excited to draw on the expertise of our TSS parents, hosting a lunch time session with Mr Statham who answered questions about his business Sundown Pastoral Company.

In addition to these sessions we have been looking at ways to encourage the boys to engage their own entrepreneurial talents. This is done via competition afternoons. The first of these presented students with a hypothetical business situation, and 40 minutes to come up with a solution. The prize was a cash one. In order to improve their presentation skills this term we have partnered with Speech Variety and on Wednesday night students from Years 7-12 presented ‘elevator pitches’. There were some very interesting ideas, ranging from ways to clean up the ocean (Will Marshall), ways to clean up our streets (Reyne Fennell) and ways to encourage us to be calmer when driving (Brian Williams).

Finally, the boys are required to get out and accomplish some activities themselves, whether that be by undertaking work experience, engaging in a service project or listening to a business based podcast, there is plenty of opportunity to engage in business.

Students undertaking the program have been overwhelmingly positive in their feedback, and understand the importance that business plays in everyday life. Business Leadership participant Vishaak Gangasandra reflected “business is involved in every aspect of life, whether it be booking holidays or working in an office. Business is unofficially a part of everything whether it is direct or indirect and having these programs offered to me beyond the subjects that I have chosen will give me the skills that I will most likely need in the future after graduating.”

We therefore look forward to continuing to build on the legacy of this program going forward, encouraging the entrepreneurial capabilities of the boys in the Senior School and developing their abilities as business leaders of the future.