Last weekend was a very pleasant one. My brother and I journeyed to Lake Macquarie, just south of Newcastle, for a class reunion at our old high school. But it wasn’t just any class reunion, it was the 50th anniversary of when the class of 1962 completed their year 12 at our alma mater, Boorgagul High School. BHS (now known as Lake Macquarie High School – a VERY contentious and unpopular name change by us “oldies”) is on the very edge of the lake with the playgrounds on the southern side of the main block sloping right down to the lake. In retrospect, and I have “retrospected” many times in the intervening years, we were very lucky to go to such a school where the surroundings, as well as the school itself, were so spectacularly good.
At the time we were there the school population was close to 900 but it now sits at less than 400, the ravages of the population “bulge” having both increased and decreased enrollment several times in the intervening years. The school has had some pretty rough patches and had earned itself a very poor reputation since the halcyon days of Mr Blakemore’s oft-repeated mantra, “This great school of ours”. But things are looking up as we were to discover.
The reunion was in two parts. On Friday afternoon we met at the school and were given a guided tour of the facility by the principal, a dynamic and fascinating man as I will shortly detail. For Paul and I it wasn’t quite as unique as we have regularly visited in a private capacity over the years and also attended the school’s official 50th anniversary celebrations in 2008. However, most of our peers who gathered there on Friday, (about 20 of us) hadn’t seen the school since they left in 1967 so, to them, it was quite a revelation. As expected, the infrastructure was substantially the same except for the addition of the new Arts block, added in the 70’s, the new Library, added in the 90’s and the new Tech block, added just recently. Apart from these, walking the corridors and visiting the classrooms had a comfy, familiar feel.
The principal promised a guided tour and that’s what we got; it really was special. What we didn’t expect, at least I didn’t, was that he would spend nearly three hours after school on a Friday, in his own time, not only showing us our old school but giving us, in great detail, his vision for the school and what the staff and he had achieved since he took over two years ago. As a teacher it fascinated me to hear how, under his leadership, they were turning the school around and making it back into the great school that it once was. Brendan is an engineer by profession who went into teaching after already having a career. I am convinced that the wider world view that he has developed by doing so has made a radical difference to how he has approached the discipline of teaching.
Perversely, far from being imbued with all the latest artsy-fartsy left wing ideologies that come with teaching these days, Brendan is a dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist in his ideology but with an eye to how these traditional teaching values should be applied in the 21st century. Under his leadership the school has formed connections with organisations all over Australia and all over the world that enable BHS to be part of exciting and innovative educational activities. For example, the school has an arrangement with NASA that will see them being directly involved with the celebrations next year of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. A group of Year 9 students will shortly be travelling to Hawaii to take part in the commemoration of the Pearl Harbour bombing in 1941. The school is connected to several high-tech organisations here in Australia through which the students are engaging in sophisticated environmental projects and classrooms in the Tech block especially are being modified to allow more exploration of robotics and the technical sciences.
Far, however, from being a “one man’s vision” the staff are fully involved in and committed to the vision and already the school community is on-board, encouraging the staff in these endeavours. A little later in the tour, we sat in one of the classrooms where he showed us the new furniture, all Australian made and designed, furniture that will encourage collaborative team building learning as well as the more traditional learning as well. For, make no mistake, Brendan isn’t up in the clouds there somewhere, flying along in the ether of way-out ideas. The staples of learning and the essential basics are still the solid foundation upon which the whole school is grounded. So encouraging to hear.
Under his leadership, he has arranged for all the Year 5 and Year 6 students AND their teachers from all the feeder primary schools to spend 4 weeks in Term 3 AT BHS getting used to and becoming involved in the multitude of innovative educational projects that the school provides. The classroom teachers undertake the students’ “normal” workload until 1100 and then, for the rest of the day, the students and their teachers dive into the exciting world of secondary education, BHS-style. It has already become clear that these students transition into high school with the greatest of ease and, in fact, just see high school as being an extension of what they have already done and with which they are already familiar.
Three and a half hours touring the school and becoming aware of the vision of the school was amazing. A couple of other things; there is NO graffiti anywhere to be seen in the school; there was NO litter anywhere, either inside the school or in the playground and we were there before the cleaners would have had a chance to clean. Detention is only held once a week, not every day, and the numbers of students being detained is dropping dramatically. The school has a Uniform Policy that is adhered to by all students and backed by the school community.
Enrollment is climbing, not yet to 1960’s levels but certainly the best that it has been for years, Everything that we saw and heard gave me the unshakable impression that here was a leader and a school that is, again, destined for great things. I remarked to Brendan that I am sure that the spirit of Danny Blakemore and Norman Hall are looking down upon his efforts with enormous satisfaction. BHS is on the way to again becoming a great school.
But, as the ad used to say, “..there’s more.” On Saturday we met at Awaba House, the historic building just outside the fence of BHS (see pic above) for lunch. Over 20 of the class of 67 were there as well as former teachers, all of whom were fondly remembered by us all. Of most note was that Mrs Davies, the girls mistress in our day, was there and what a delight it was to see her again. 91 years old and as sharp and bright as a teenager, she spent the afternoon not only soaking up some well-deserved adulation, but also commenting on education today and her memories of us as a class and as individuals.
From Awaba House we adjourned to Awaba, the suburb some 6 kms away for afternoon tea and dinner at the home of our School Captain of 1966 and 1967, Bernie McKinnon (hence my title today). Hours passed quickly with delightful food and even more delightful company. I got the chance to apologise, belatedly, to my Year 7 science teacher, Miss Elkins, who we all treated rather badly as a 19 year old first year out of college teacher. To her great credit she said that she didn’t think we were that bad at all, though I’m sure the progress of time has dulled the memory somehwat 🙂
I circulated but I must confess that I spent a lot of my time talking to and listening to Mrs Davies, it was a rare thrill and one that I’m sure I will never have again. Afternoon tea (a sumptuous spread of “finger food”) merged into a colossal buffet dinner and an equally impressive desert before we finally staggered out of Bernie’s at 1930 and pointed the car south. Bernie funded the whole afternoon, insistent that we make no financial contribution to the festivities, a magnanimous gesture indeed. We were able to present him with a plaque on which all the names were listed as a “thank you” however.
It was a truly memorable weekend, and, unlike the archetypal class reunion movies that we know so well, it will filled with smiles and laughter, a real reflection of not only our collective upbringing in a more genteel era but also of what we had learned at our time at BHS. I believe that we showed, quite unconsciously, what a great education can achieve.
Now, what about that MotoGp meeting last weekend at PI? Again our local track delivered three of the best races of the season, the premier class one perhaps the best ever. So many lead changes, so many twists and turns and so much to love. The circus heads to Sepang in Malaysia, this weekend with the Moto3 title decided, Miracle Mir getting the job done with relative (for him) ease. Moto2 is still up in the air but Pasini’s crash and Luthi’s tyre woes has really put Morbidelli in the box seat. Marquez’s brutal and calculating demolition of the classiest of fields (he was leading by over 2 seconds close to the end but backed off to win by 1.7) means that he has an excellent chance of claiming his 6th world championship this weekend. Warm the set and cool the tinnies, as the ad used to say, it’s going to be a MONSTER weekend.