NBSC Balgowlah Boys Campus Maretimo St, BALGOWLAH, NSW 2093 Ph: 9949 4200 Fax: 9907 0266 [email protected] www.balgowlahboys.nsw.edu.au The Balgowlah Boys Campus Newsletter Principal’s Report 2nd Newsletter Term 1 2014 The school has been inundated with well wishes and congratulations over the article in last week’s Sydney Morning Herald. The article was triggered by the Media Conference held on March 3, for the live update of the My Schools Website. The media was briefed by the national curriculum body, ACARA, and a number of schools were identified that had performed beyond the expected growth for NAPLAN testing and at the top of the list was Balgowlah Boys! “Not only are Balgowlah Boys keeping up with the girls in literacy, they are leaving many for dust. Balgowlah Boys Campus is now among the state's most impressive performers in the NAPLAN results for literacy and numeracy, published on the federal government's My School website on Wednesday” (Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/the-word-is-these-boys-know-how-to- string-them-together-20140304-3456c.html#ixzz2vQ9yhRRZ) Marley Peterson, Matthew Murphy , Tristan Godoy and Owen Sheather photographed by the SMH Photographer. The article has triggered great interest from all forms of media, Channel 7, Radio 2GB and most of the print media have covered our success to varying degrees. This feedback has made the staff even more confident that our teaching strategies are working and that all boys, regardless of ability have the opportunity to achieve their best. I would like to congratulate the Balgowlah Boys Swim Team, winning the Zone Swimming Carnival for the 18th successive year. The Welcome Evening for the Year 7 Parents was held last week and it was extremely well attended. The feedback from parents was very positive and the evening was an ideal opportunity for new parents to the school to chat with executive and classroom teachers. The next P&C Evening is this Tuesday 11th March and all parents are welcome to attend. Deputy Principal’s Report On Thursday afternoon as I walked across the Quadrangle to begin Lunch Duty I saw an excited group of Year 7 boys run out of G Block. They were headed for the lower Basketball Courts which is currently a Year 7 area where they can get used to the new secondary school style playground. Looking forward to hanging out with his mates and probably catching up on everything that had happened since Recess, one of the boys was still shoving items from his previous class into the front of his bag. At the back of the group, one of the boys swung his bag over his shoulder and onto his back and in his excited rush to move on with the others the force of his bag-over-the- shoulder flourish caused the zip on his bag to open. In a spray of debris his lunch, school books, pencil case and most of his sports uniform were strewn in an arc around this student. For a moment the boy didn’t realise and kept running but as he nearly stepped on his sandwich that had fallen out of his lunchbox he stopped and looked around him at the contents of his bag. What happened next outlines one of the many reasons why Balgowlah Boys Campus students experience such a wide variety of success. In the research literature it is called altruism and is a perfect synthesis of our 3 Core Values of Respect, Responsibility and Excellence. A 2009 study of the impact of altruism in teenage boys showed that these boys developed more positive social relationships (obviously) but also “increased purpose in life, and self-acceptance”. (Springer, 2009) This is not new though, a 1999 study “showed pronounced improvement on confidence, self-awareness, self-esteem, depression and role functioning” (Schwartz, 1999). Although all of the boys in the group were impatient and eager to get down to the Basketball Courts, the entire group stopped. Turned back and proceeded to not only pick up the emptied contents of their friend’s bag but as I got closer I heard one offer to share his lunch with the boy as he threw the mangled sandwich in the nearby bin. This is what Balgowlah Boys do. They support their mates and they support their mates in many ways, and being a good mate isn’t easy. It is a fulltime job for which there is no training and no preparation for what to expect in the difficult times. Even though we are not taught how, or what to expect when it comes to being a good mate – we definitely know how to measure whether or not someone is a good mate. One of those measures is a sense of responsibility. Responsibility to ourselves and to others. A real mate can take the step-up to support us even when the going gets tough. And nowhere is that going tougher than when your mate has made a mistake. In that instance it is our responsibility, knowing what the right thing is to do, to pull up our mate to remind them of their choices and the impact of that choice on themselves and others. As Year 7 and Year 9 and Year 11 have begun to adapt to the social and educational challenges new to them this year, there have been some students who have been outstanding at developing these skills and walking tall as outstanding mates to their friends and outstanding Balgowlah Boys. I have been fortunate to speak to a number of these boys over the past 6 weeks and have collected some of what they have said to me in our conversations about what they were doing in the various situations where they demonstrated excellence as a mate. “Good mates say what they mean and mean what they say.” This student was talking about integrity – but how it was more than being honest – it was about striving for moral excellence. They were saying they were the same person whether they were being watched by others or not. “I want to make the world a better place.” This was from a boy who had told his friend that it wasn’t cool to call another student “poor”. He was conscious of others’ distress but also that his friend wasn’t a bad guy but his stupid comment was hurting someone else. This is about compassion. “Real men are confident”. This was from a Year 7 student so I had a little trouble not laughing however, we had a great conversation about how “real men” don’t need to tear others down in order to make themselves feel worthy. They earn other’s trust with their inner strength, not their physical strength and when they walk into a room, people take notice – not because of the size of their guns! “I didn’t want us to be wasting our time.” This conversation was about a Year 9 boy who had encouraged his friend to move to another place in the classroom with him to avoid distractions from their regular group of friends. This was a revelation to me that self-control begins with focus and removing distraction – which isn’t easy! This boy had channelled his energy that he had been using to distract others to turning that energy into a positive pursuit that helped his friends. “I haven’t given up and I’m not going to give up.” This student was at odds with his parents who had the boy’s best interests at heart but wasn’t listening to what their son really wanted to do in terms of study and future career. This young man hadn’t said anything through most of the interview until he said this. Very quietly this boy was demonstrating his courageous resistance against the difficult circumstances created by not being in the right learning environment through his strong sense of perseverance. “Everyone talks about swagger but actually I have discovered I sometimes feel more proud about seeing my friends achieving something than if I had done it myself. Luckily I have lots of friends!” This comment blew me away, and came from one of our fantastic Year 11 leaders. The advent of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. can encourage us to take on a “Look at me” focus. What this outstanding young man had already discovered was that humility is a much more attractive (and advantageous) trait than self-centredness or self-importance. The students quoted above are a small example of the development of values that takes place across the grades at Balgowlah Boys Campus. The characteristics shown are influenced by a wide range of values and are clearly represented in our school’s core values. The Faculty of Arts Authentic and Innovative Creative Arts and Languages Education Music Balgowlah Boys and Mackellar Girls Musical We are very excited to collaborate with our sister school in a musical this year. Based on the songs by the Beatles, Help! (The Love You Take = The Love You Make) will feature Years 7 to 12 students in many rolls, including; vocal work (both lead and chorus), Rock Ensembles from both schools, String Ensembles, Concert Bands from both school and Stage Bands just to name a few. We congratulate all our successful candidates who have auditioned for this event. The audition process was a little scary for the student at first, however, our students supported each other with much love and enthusiasm. The first rehearsal was held on Tuesday 4th March.