BalCC Annual Report 2021

Annual Report 2021

Introduction

Schools which receive ongoing recurrent funding from the Australian and Victorian Governments are required to publish annual data, in a number of areas, to comply with relevant legislation. We have presented this data in a form which we trust will be easily read and understood by the College community, and which will provide the information required under law.

Ballarat Christian College is a non-denominational, co-educational College catering for approximately 300 students in 2021 in Years Prep to 12. The College is registered as an education provider by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA). A broad, inclusive and comprehensive program is offered from Years Prep to 10, with VCE, VET and VCAL offered to (some) Year 10, and to all Year 11 and 12 students.

Students are encouraged and guided to reach their God-given potential by striving for excellence in all endeavours. The College seeks to help students grow in the wisdom of God and to walk in His ways after initially having a saving faith in Christ. We foster the development of positive and harmonious relationships with other people, the environment and with God.

The College offers programs in many areas including pastoral care, student leadership and co-curricular, as well as a balanced curriculum based on the Australian Curriculum. Additionally, a Christian education program called Christian Living is taught, whereby the knowledge and heart of the Christian faith is transmitted through structured lessons delivered by Christian teachers. The College is also a Registered Training Organisation delivering the Certificate III in Christian Studies course to internal and external students in the senior secondary years.

Every learner reaching their God-given potential

Our Vision Our Purpose

To provide each student Christian education that gives opportunities to develop gifts and talents to fulfil the will of God in his or her life

Board Chairman’s Report

2021 was another year where students, families and staff were challenged by adversity due to the impacts of COVID. My intention is to NOT have to open with such a line again, as it is in danger of becoming a quotable opening.

Although the College had processes in place this last year to cope with the challenges of teaching in this environment, I acknowledge that it has still been stressful and draining on both staff, students, and families.

Thank you to our Principal Mr Nuridin and all the staff at the College for an outstanding contribution in getting the students through the 2021 year. The requirement to adapt, innovate and persist has been enormous and you should all be very proud of the work you have done this year. Adapt, Innovate and Persist…. Did someone add those to our College Values and forget to tell us!!!

The College Board has remained very stable over the year with only the loss of Mr Russell Barter who took up a teaching position at the College. The College welcomed Mr Tim Clark, Pastor at Peel Street Church of Christ who has taken up a vacant position as a Board Director. Tim is also a parent at the College.

The Board membership at the end of 2021 consisted of:

• Mr Ross Coventry (Board Chair)

• Mr Randall Dreger (Deputy Board Chair)

• Mrs Lorraine Firth

• Mr Chris Duke

• Mrs Jodie Rickard

• Mrs Amy Lewis

• Ps. Tim Clark

Next, I would like to commend Mr Edwards and the maintenance team for consistently improving and maintaining the College grounds to a very high standard. 2021 saw significant work completed around the College, and in particular the work done around the refurbishment of the creek area with new fencing, re-establishing the vegetable gardens and building a chicken coop. I think there may be students who are getting their daily vitamins from this garden incognito.

The cubby houses built by the Building and Construction students were installed in the Primary school. And these have been a favorite with the younger students.

The College finances were once again in surplus in 2021. Despite the difficult circumstances of the last two years the College finances have been in surplus for a number of years now. This surplus was achieved through the careful and the consistent management of expenses applied by the Executive and Finance staff. A particular thanks to Mr Edwards, Mr Nuridin and Mr Dreger (Finance and Risk Committee Chair) who always go above and beyond to ensure the financial viability of the College. We saw an operating surplus of $50,304 in 2021.

Volunteer activity was again limited last year (due to the pandemic), the Board would like to thank the many volunteers that make themselves available and continue to contribute so much to the College programs and activities throughout the year. Volunteers are important not only due to the work they put in but because they broaden the community atmosphere both within and connect to the wider college community.

We acknowledge the contribution that parents and carers have made through the year, especially given that remote learning added additional responsibilities and workload to the parent body once again. As a parent, I know the skills, effort and commitment required to ensure your child remains connected and engaged in their learning. I don’t know about you but my appreciation for the teaching body has grown exponentially throughout the last three years.

We commend all our students for the resilience and perseverance they have shown throughout the year in achieving great results in a difficult year. In particular, the Year 12 students, who have had to work through two years of the pandemic and the difficulties this has imposed, in order to achieve their VCE. Resilience is a word that comes to mind; however we need to acknowledge that not all students fare the same and asking for help is always welcomed here at the college.

The introduction of composite classes to the Primary school has been successfully completed and will provide greater flexibility in class sizes and the opportunity for additional students to be added to classes throughout the year.

We are looking forward to 2022, praying for a more normal year and expecting great things from our students.

Ross Coventry Board Chairman

Principal/CEO’s Report

The College faced another challenging year in 2021 but I am pleased to report that despite these difficulties the College completed a very successful year. I am sure no one will be surprised that the challenges were mainly related to the ongoing pandemic, and in particular, the switching back and forth between onsite and remote learning. As we persevered through each lockdown, the increasing toll upon students and staff was noticeable. However, as was the case at the end of the previous year, we concluded the final term with decreasing restrictions and increasing optimism that the following year would be a better one.

Staffing

During 2021 we welcomed and farewelled several staff, although the staffing of the College remained relatively stable, especially considering the pandemic situation.

We welcomed Mr Russell Barter, Mr Alan Baldry, Mrs Amander Borner, Mr Brian Hamilton and Mrs Shellie Peters to the College’s teaching staff. In the nonteaching area, we welcomed former student and 2017 College Captain Mr Isaac Baker in a trainee capacity in our ICT department. Another trainee position was filled by Miss Rachel Fuentes in the College Administration office. Mrs Ruthie Byrne returned to a small face-to-face teaching role, and we were also pleased to welcome back Mrs Kylie Weightman, who resumed the teaching of LOTE across the College.

Mrs Ashleigh Dalton joined the Student Wellbeing team at the beginning of Term 2, assisting College Chaplain Ps Steve Shaw. A member of our Education Support staff team, Mrs Rebecca Sebit, also joined the Student Wellbeing team during the year to help meet the increasing case load. Mrs Jade Morgan joined the Education Support staff in Term 3, helping offset the partial vacancy created by Mrs Sebit moving into student wellbeing.

During the year we farewelled Mrs Amander Borner and Mr Russell Barter from their respective teaching roles. At the end of the year Mr Brian Hamilton, Mrs Kylie Weightman, Mrs Leanne Coventry and Mrs Ruthie Byrne also concluded their teaching roles (although Mrs Byrne continues to be involved with the development of the Certificate III in Christian Studies course).

The College’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT) remained unchanged from 2020 and consisted of:

• Mr Ken Nuridin – Principal

• Mrs Bianca Francica – Head of Primary

• Mr Scott McKenzie – Head of Secondary

• Mrs Julie Gall – Director of Teaching and Learning

• Mr Simon Edwards – Business Manager

Mrs Francica was absent on long service leave during Term 3, during which Mrs Emily Westblade was Acting Head of Primary.

One of the highlights of 2021 for staff was the reinstatement of the Staff Retreat. This event was held over two days/one night at Sovereign Hill’s Narmbool farm property near Elaine. The focus of the retreat was a deeper dive into the distinctiveness of Christian schooling, using CSA’s resources as our teaching material.

Infrastructure and Resources

Several projects were carried out during 2021 to further improve the appearance and amenity of the College. These included a significant amount of new concreting, providing greatly improved pathways between all College buildings and improved pedestrian safety in some of the car parking and drive-through areas. Our VET Building and Construction students, under the supervision of their teacher, Mr Malcolm Solomano, built and installed two cubby houses for the enjoyment of students in Primary. The gardens and green space around the creek area was further improved under the guidance of Mr Russell Barter and often received positive comments from prospective families during tours of the College grounds.

The wire link (chainmesh) style fencing that fenced in much of the creek area was replaced with black pool-type fencing, providing improved line-of-sight through this area, not to mention greatly enhanced aesthetics. Mr Chris McInerney took charge of the installation of the new fencing, supported by Mr Scott Collins, who provided many hours of unpaid work fabricating and installing the new matching roller-gates and bridge railings. Some of our older classrooms were refurbished with new floor coverings, blinds, and repainting. New professional internal and external signage was installed around the College, including large signage promoting the College values of commitment, compassion, excellence, honesty, respect, and unity.

Students

The total student enrolment at the August census date was 304 students, with 146 in Primary and 158 in Secondary. Although the overall student numbers are similar to the previous years, there is a noticeable increase in Secondary enrolments at the expense of Primary enrolments. This is the first time in several years that the balance has swung back towards Secondary enrolments. It was difficult to pinpoint any one reason for the change, but it does seem that the COVID-19 pandemic was a factor in reducing enrolments in the Primary school.

In 2021 the College began the introduction of a composite class structure by replacing the single-year cohorts of Year 1 and Year 2 homeroom classes with two classes of mixed Years 1 and 2 students. These classes were titled ‘Lower Primary’, being distinguished by an ‘A’ or ‘B’ suffix. During the year planning was undertaken for this structure to be rolled out in 2022 for the remainder of the Primary school, apart from the Prep (Foundation) class.

2021 saw the rebirthing of the Year 9 program as the Micah 6:8 program. The Year 9 cohort continue to study their mainstream curriculum for four days of the week, with the fifth day focusing upon bespoke activities to the program, including undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh program (bronze level), career planning and community service.

For the first time in many years, the College awarded two general scholarships to students entering Year 7 in 2022. The scholarships cover half of the standard tuition fee for Years 7-9. Scholarships will be made available to cover Years 10-12 as students move through to the senior years.

As was the case in the previous year, the 2021 College Captains were limited by the COVID-19 pandemic in their opportunities to represent the College more broadly. One notable exception to this constraint was the College’s participation in the ANZAC Day Dawn Service and Commemorative Service, where College Captains Emma Golding and Ethan Coventry participated in the reading of the Ode of Remembrance. They were joined at the main Commemorative Service by ViceCaptains Krystal Edwards and Matthew Van Den Hoek in the laying of a wreath of behalf of the College community at the Cenotaph. The Captains regularly led the Student Senate and met weekly with the College Principal.

Some College events were able to go ahead despite COVID restrictions. These included the swimming and athletics carnivals, some year level camps, the Years 6 and 12 graduations and the Year 12 Formal.

Registration

The College went through the cyclical review and re-registration process with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) for registration as a school and for its registration as a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). The RTO review was successfully concluded earlier in the year, which was followed by the audit process for the College as a whole. This review was subject to several delays and postponements due to the pandemic. The scheduled onsite visit by the audit team was eventually replaced by an online meeting on 22 September. Areas identified by the audit requiring rectification, mainly regarding updating of policies and some documentation, were being addressed and finalised with the VRQA in early 2022.

Conclusion

We continue to see God’s hand upon our College despite the continuing challenges of the pandemic, and the increasingly challenging political and cultural landscape. We continue to seek His guidance as we strive to present a God-honouring Christian educational setting to the Ballarat and surrounding community and are thankful for the many blessings we have received as we honour our purpose and mission.

The College is very appreciative of the governance of the College Board, led by the Chair of the Board, Mr Ross Coventry, assisted by Deputy Chair Mr Randall Dreger. Early in 2021 Mr Russell Barter resigned from the Board to take up a teaching role with the College. Pastor Tim Clark was welcomed onto the Board in July. The remaining Board Directors in 2021 were Mrs Lorraine Firth, Mrs Amy Lewis, Mrs Jodie Rickard, and Rev Chris Duke.

As noted earlier the College Executive remained unchanged from the previous year, albeit with Mrs Emily Westblade stepping up as Acting Head of Primary during Mrs Francica’s absence in Term 3. I thank Mrs Westblade for filling this role most capably during this time. I also acknowledge the ongoing support of the Executive team in partnering with me to lead the College.

I conclude by acknowledging the work of all members of the College staff: teachers, education support staff and all our non-teaching staff in Administration, ICT, and other support roles. Each person plays a vital part in ensuring that the College can fulfil its mission to provide a Christian education to the students entrusted into our care. Whatever role an individual is assigned, it is our working together as a team that brings glory to our Lord as we serve Him in our service to our students and families.

Ken Nuridin Principal/CEO

Compliance Data

Senior Secondary Outcomes

Our class of 13 Year 12 students (including 3 VCAL students) finished their studies, with 100% of the VCE students achieving their Victorian Certificate of Education. The Median Study Score was 22.3, and 71% of Year 12 students were awarded the school-based Certificate III level qualification in Christian Studies.

Post-School Destinations

The following data supplied through the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) indicates Year 12 students’ post-school destinations:

Tertiary Applications and Offers: - 7 students

University Offers:- 3 students

TAFE/VET Offers:- 1 student

Any Tertiary Offer:- nil

In Education and Training

Bachelor degree enrolled:- 4 students

Deferred:- nil

TAFE/VET (Cert IV+):- 2 students

TAFE/VET (Cert I-III):- 1 student

Not in Education and Training

Employed:- 4 students

Other data from Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) is outlined below:

School Programs

Number of VCE Units 3 & 4 with enrolments – 12 (with 4 Virtual Schools Victoria)

Number of VCE VET Certificates with enrolments – 18, including 2 internal (Certificate III Christian Studies & Certificate II in Building & Construction) and 1 in School Based Apprenticeship.

Teacher Standards and Qualifications

All teachers are registered by the Victorian Institute of Teaching as either fully registered; provisionally registered, as in the case of ex-graduates; or as having Permission to Teach (PTT), in the case of teachers in the process of finalising teaching qualifications.

Compliance Data

Teachers at the College possess the following qualifications:

The workforce of Ballarat Christian College consists of the following.

Student Attendance

The College’s Student Attendance Policy and Procedures are to facilitate follow up of student issues relating to excessive lateness and absenteeism, through close monitoring of attendance data, direct contact with students, follow up letters to parents and interviews with students and parents. This role has been assumed by the Heads of School, along with homeroom teachers.

Administration staff follow up absentees daily where unexplained, and at least twice per week regarding written confirmation or medical certificates.

Parent, Student & Teacher Satisfaction with the School

The College uses the ACARA School Satisfaction Survey material for ascertaining feedback. This was conducted in the first half of 2022 to reflect student, staff and parent satisfaction with the College during 2021. This survey was widely distributed to College staff and parents, and selectively to a group of students. The results continue to be analysed and discussed by staff, the Executive Leadership Team, and shared with members of the College Board.

Parent Satisfaction Survey Results

Student Satisfaction Survey Results

These results, along with other qualitative and quantitative data, will be used to inform improvement in teaching and learning, as outlined below.

A consistent, established testing regime, triangulation of data, detailed analysis of the data at a management level, quality feedback to staff and ongoing professional development regarding data analysis and strategies for change, have been the key features of the College focus on maintaining, supporting and tracking student gain.

Ongoing detailed records of student academic ability, wellbeing and demographics have supported and assisted to track student progress based on individual need.

Student Outcomes from NAPLAN 2021

OUR VALUES

RESPECT COMPASSION HONESTY COMMITMENT UNITY EXCELLENCE

Every learner reaching their God-given potential

Finance Report

2021 was another COVID-interrupted year which presented further challenges and opportunities for change and improvement. The financial result for 2021 was a small surplus. The key outcomes of the year from a financial viewpoint were: (i) a slight increase in enrolments, (ii) continued management of debtors, (iii) student & staff focused resourcing, and (iv) planning for future growth & development across the College.

The College's operating surplus was $50,304 [2020 - $218,291]. The consolidated surplus for the year ending 31 December 2021, including capital donations, was $77,904 [2020 - $223,991].

The Board acknowledges the funding grants received from both federal and state governments and recognises its responsibility to act as a steward of the resources God provides to the College.

Total Income -2021

Total Expenditure -2021

Please Note:

There is a complete set of audited financial statements available to members on request from the Business Manager.