Page 4 - Willunga 2013 School Magazine Interactive

Principals Comments

“Be the Change that we covered students were saying “Hello!”, they were each other, sharing their experience and teachers
you wish to see in asking me questions and they were smiling, happy, have become the artisans of the development and

the world” (Mahatma engaged and positive young people. You can imagine delivery of the learning program. The consistency and
Gandhi) is how we how proud I was of them, the staff, the educational power of the NBN has encouraged teachers to take
have approached 2013 program. It is my philosophy that in order to be risks in using technology. There are 9,200 schools
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and students, parents inspiring you need to be inspired. These young people across Australia and only 33 are connected to the NBN,
and staff have indeed inspire me every day, they amaze me with their talents, it would be a real shame if every student across the
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grasped the concept, their ideas and their country was not given
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gone with the flow and enthusiasm. I would not “Be the Change that you wish to the same opportunities
enjoyed the experience. want to be doing anything see in the world” as our students. We
We have been on a else! Is that not a joy to Mahatma Gandhi have been recognised
journey of transformational self discovery over the be able to say exactly this! as delivering cutting edge learning programs and we
last 8 years and it appears to me that we have been Looking back on this year we have had some have been invited to a number of conferences to deliver
successful. You always ask yourself, how do you amazing highlights and these are just a few: Keynotes and addresses to other educators, as well as
know? Well it appears evident from feedback from Year 12 Graduation: this event is always featuring in news items, articles and publications. It is
parents and visitors to the school, from our increasing inspirational with the Valedictorians for the evening a real credit to our staff and our students. We have also
numbers, the fact that staff do not wish to leave our Glenn and Jess delivering a heartfelt speech on the been participating in National Projects where students
school and others are applying in very large numbers impact of education at Willunga High School on in Advanced Science in Year 10 are getting access to
to become part of our community. If you look at the themselves and their peers. There were tears and learning through world class scientists in the areas of
political rhetoric, our success should be reflected in joy, happiness and sorrow but most of a sense of Astrophysics and Nanotechnology through Monash
our NAPLAN results or academic results. Certainly we achievement and no regrets. These occasions are University and the University of New South Wales.
have had continued improvement in our SACE results always positive and affirming for everyone involved Students have been guiding and driving the Mars Rover
with increases in our A and B results and 82% of our and our students leave us with the skills and expertise replica through the Powerhouse Museum, talking and
students achieving their senior school certificate. that they need to be successful in whatever endeavours discovering new and exciting aspects of how life began!
However, I was once asked by a parent about how do they pursue. As our numbers grow, we have continued
I measure the success of a school, my reply and my The National Broadband Network: we have been to develop our beautiful grounds and add more
personal belief is: Is this child happy? Does this child able to harness the power of this technology to classrooms. We have discovered that we are short of
have friends? Is he or she involved in the school and transform our teaching and learning experiences. classrooms and over the next 6 months we will have 2
community? Do they enjoy coming to school and most Everyone is a learner and as one teacher said: “It has new Science Laboratories and 2 classrooms built, the
of all are they experiencing success and personal allowed my students to move from C grades into A tennis courts have been resurfaced and relined
growth? I took a visitor around the school the other day grades”, the reason this has happened is that students (which has been on the top of my list for 8 years)
and we only walked 20 metres and for each metre that have been engaged in their learning, learning from and made fit for purpose, the school has a new
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