From the Principal

From the Chairman

MR IAN ANDERSEN, CHAIRMAN

There are not many instances that allow me to connect with the whole Fairholme Community. One opportunity is when I speak at the ‘Presenting Fairholme’ events toward the end of each College year and this report is another welcome opportunity.

It is important, firstly, for me to assure you that Fairholme College had a great year in 2021, regardless of the underlying matters related to the Presbyterian Church of Queensland - which I advised the College Community of earlier in the year.

Fairholme has continued to operate without any impacts or changes in its day-to-day operations - except for minor additional reporting arrangements. The College is in an extremely robust financial position, with little or no debt; our enrolments are very strong, with a full Boarding House.

You might remember that we planned to commence construction of Stage 1 of the Master Plan during 2021. However, being both prudent and cautious, the Board of Directors chose to delay commencement of that project. This has been beneficial in a couple of ways, by ensuring that the plans were fully developed and approved; and that we received formal certification of the Ministerial Infrastructure Designation for our Master Plan which guarantees we can proceed in implementing the plan with little hindrance over the coming years. It is our intention to commence the project sometime in 2022; and therefore we have included it in our 2022 Budget.

This year we also developed and finalised plans to extend the Health Centre to provide additional rooms for isolation purposes. Work on these spaces commenced in the Christmas/New Year school holidays and should be completed by the end of Term 2 2022.

As a Not-for-Profit educational institution, it is incumbent on the Board to review our governance arrangements on a regular basis. As such, the Board has determined, with the blessing of The Presbyterian Church of Queensland and the approval of the Receiver, to develop a proposal to be considered at an appropriate time, hopefully this year, to move to a formal corporate structure – like many other independent schools that are not part of a school system such as the Lutheran, Anglican and Catholic system.

I must record my thanks to our Principal, Dr Evans, and the members of the Senior Leadership Team for their unfaltering

commitment, drive and passion in leading the whole Fairholme Community. I particularly thank our Business Manager and his Administration Team for their efforts throughout the year in dealing with the additional administration burden imposed by the additional reporting requirements mentioned earlier.

I wish to also acknowledge the exceptional service provided by the Fairholme Board of Directors throughout this year. Their positive support and commitment are to be applauded – Board membership is a significant act of dedication and service and I am grateful for their interest in, and support of, the College.

Board stability is a very positive attribute for any organisation to have, and there were no changes to the Board make-up this year with the Moderator of The Presbyterian Church of Queensland, Right Reverend Dr Phil Strong, continuing to serve in his third consecutive year in this role.

In 2021, the College spent almost $1.3 million on improvements to our facilities and infrastructure. Projects approved and completed during the year included: • Completion of the planning for Stage 1 of the College Masterplan • Conversion of Boarding House accommodation from staff to student, increasing capacity • Refurbishment of an additional four Junior Classrooms • Ongoing upgrade and replacement of IT equipment • Furniture, fittings, plant and equipment replacements. The Board approved the 2022 Budget at its November meeting. The Board is very conscious of the many competing factors in developing the budget each year, particularly with the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 and the financial challenges confronting many of our families; as well as the need to continue to improve our facilities and provide the very best education for our students. With this in mind, the 2022 Budget provides for a 2.5 per cent increase in Tuition Fees, a 2.5 per cent increase in Boarding Fees, and the Capital Levy will increase by 2.5 per cent.

I believe it is important that we reflect on each year as it passes – in order to celebrate our successes, learn from our mistakes, and to just reminisce. I encourage you to do that; after all, Fairholme is about us – students, staff, parents and friends – the extended Fairholme Family.

In conclusion, I can say that the College continues to be very well placed to meet the challenges and opportunities of these somewhat difficult times.

From the Principal

DR LINDA EVANS, PRINCIPAL

EDUCATION - children not content

John Dewey’s philosophy that children, not content, should be the focus of the educational process, has left a lasting impression on educators who share in his beliefs and philosophies about education and how children learn most effectively (Schiro, 2013 cited in Williams, 2017, p. 93 ).

Education often finds itself pushing against oppositional tides – with the push to succeed on external measures such as ATAR, NAPLAN, Academic Awards and Scholarships pitted against the deeper intrinsic motivation to learn; learning for the joy of it. As individuals and communities, we invariably enjoy those tangible successes, the certificates we can touch and the trophies we can hold. Appropriately, we utilise longitudinal data to track student achievements and we measure aspects of success by results. Importantly, we also track and measure ‘distance travelled’. As a school, we delight when Fairholme measures favourably against the state or national achievement standards we do want to know that we are providing our students with the best learning outcomes we can. Yet, somewhere deep within lies my own desire to run a school where students want to learn … to learn for the love of learning.

Naïve. Fanciful. Wishful. Perhaps there was too much John Dewey in my early tertiary education – ‘Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself’ or perhaps my favourite education lecturer, Dr John Roulston, who went on to become the Executive Director of Independent Schools Queensland, inspired me too much – inspired me with lofty thoughts of secondary education meaning more than a number, of it being a comma, rather than a full stop. To him, I am indebted. He is, for me, in the abridged words of Bernard Salt, ‘the [lecturer] who made me’. Dr Roulston ran a lecture theatre like none other. He engaged us, he challenged us, and he debunked so many ingrained beliefs about pedagogy. For his refusal to teach like it’s always been done, I am so grateful.

There is also a lot to be grateful for in 2021, as we reflect on another year lived on the periphery of a pandemic. For the most part, we enjoyed uninterrupted face-to-face learning and, as I lived vicariously through my daughter’s lockdown experiences as a teacher in Melbourne, and my niece’s Year 10 journey in Sydney, I was ever thankful. Perhaps, a pandemic has revealed an essence of teaching that we have taken for granted; the value of the human, face-to-face interactions that take place in classrooms, in real time. Beneath the apparent regularity of classrooms are layers and nuances of learning and becoming that are only evident when we are given the chance to see them differently. COVID-19 has provided that perspective – whether we have sought it out, or not. It has also pushed us into technology corners that we had avoided previously and, amidst the difficulties inherent in this new world order, we too have learned – a lot.

We have learned a lot because there has been an enforced pause in regular life, and with that, time for reflection. This sort of reflection struck me in one of a number of conversations with this year’s Senior School ‘Presenting Fairholme’ speaker, Dr Emily Gordon (FOGA and Boarder 1990), who said, ‘I would not be doing what I do today, without Fairholme.’ What was it about Fairholme that has carved some of her life’s direction? If you ask Emily, it was about the people – the girls who gave a little more, who were empathetic and who, unwittingly or not, sought ways to contribute positively in the lives of others. Her memories of 1990 are, notably, not of the tangible successes, OP scores or the English prize winner, but of the Wendy Bassingthwaites (Ferguson) of the world (Fairholme mum and FOGA 1990) who understood and demonstrated inclusivity: no qualification, badge or trophy required. As Emily stated, it’s the little things that are remembered and the ‘one percenters’ that make a difference. There have been many ‘one percenters’ at Fairholme this year – seen in the added effort of the Open Rugby 7s girls who won their grand final match after the siren sounded, the Shave for a Cure girls who cut or shaved their hair in order to raise significant money, the student who performed solo on stage for the first time, the girls who served the wider community

through cooking for Tony’s Kitchen or Rosies Friends on the Street, those who staunchly resolved to work through a Maths problem or sought out a student who needed friendship. Prefect for the Arts, Tayla Hargreaves, inspired others through her determined efforts to rehabilitate after injury and to remain deeply connected to the Fairholme community throughout that time. ‘One percenters’ are found in the midst of effort, tenacity and perseverance. They are often invisible to the crowd, raised by the efforts of a team or somehow inherent in character. I think this special group is seen when students walk across the stage to receive a MacLaren Award for significant academic improvement between one semester and another. It’s also evident in those students who receive academic awards - those who cumulatively give another one percent in their academic application, those who are ‘initiative learners’!

Yes, education is, at its core, a to and fro between the tangible and intangible rewards, a push against the tide. We will, inevitably, measure the success of 2021 through quantifiable measures – ATAR bands, NAPLAN scores, certificates, premierships, Andrews Cup pennants, trophies and prizes – and rightly so. Because the external reward does capture a moment in time and beneath that moment, often a lifetime of effort and application. And it is these stories beneath, the intangibles, that invariably inspire me, and that also need to be part of our consciousness and narratives. It is the story of the student who walks across the stage for the first time because her sustained effort has carried her there that can make a day or a school year worthwhile. It is the story of the student who set a lofty goal and attained it or surpassed it. So perhaps, at Fairholme, it is not so fanciful to consider that many girls learn for the love of learning. That learning may, however, be about learning to be tenacious, inclusive or determined in attaining a goal or a feeling or an idea. It won’t always be learning that can be measured, and hence rewarded publicly.

One needs only to step into a Fairholme Junior classroom to be reminded that learning for learning’s sake is real and vibrant and natural. A recent discussion with the Year 2 class about the way in which they measured the weight of an eggshell with, (their words), ‘very accurate scales’ made apparent that curiosity is alive in that context. Yes, educational success is more than the tangibles, the things we amass that we think tell us who we are for posterity – awards, badges, report cards. The things that matter in the long run are often intangible. They can’t be touched, counted, or compared, or put on a shelf to admire … these things that matter lie deep within us. Fairholme-leavers, the countless factors that have become part of who they are, and who they will become, walk with them as they exit the Boarding House or G Block or the steps of the Homestead for the last time.

May the love of learning be within them, and us – and may our focus always be about the children/young adults in our classrooms – the raison d’être of the educational process.

REFERENCES Salt, B. (2021). ‘The Teachers who Made Us’. Weekend Australian Magazine. 27-28 November 2021, 32. Williams, M. (2017). ‘John Dewey in the 21st Century’. Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education, 9, 91-102.