Manners Maketh a Man Meanwhile what was happening on the other side of the creek? Mr Keith Dickins had been deputy principal during the last years of Cooke’s administration and was invited to take over the principalship. Dickins was an experienced teacher and administrator, having worked in the Adventist school system in almost every Australian State. Regrettably, due to ill-health his principalship lasted only two years. Nevertheless, he steered BAHS into the 1980s. Mr Lionel Hughes, as Dickins’ deputy, recalls that cultural activities were encouraged by Dickins. Teacher, Mrs Janet Dunbar, had formed a girls’ singing group, ‘New Generation’. This choir regularly visited the local churches to promote Christian education and to justify to parishioners the value of the dollars they expended. Culture was also fostered in the form of a concert held in the Macgregor State High School Hall. Students and staff pitched in to produce a quality program of music and gymnastics. Hughes recalled with pride, “as usual the students rose to the occasion and the concert was a resounding success.” Some considerable plant development also took place under Dickins. In 1982 the manual arts building was completed. It consisted of a graphics classroom, and dedicated workshops for woodwork, metalwork, and automotive studies. Apart from the advantages offered by the new block to technical studies, it assisted the school by freeing up classroom space for re-development into other specialty areas. Mr Barry Wright assumed the principalship at the beginning of 1983. Like Cooke before him, he was relatively inexperienced as an administrator when he assumed the reins of BAHS. His one and only appointment, after graduating in 1972 with a degree in the social sciences, was to the Avondale High School. He early, however, showed evidence of leadership potential and was first appointed head of the Social Sciences department, and then in 1980 as deputy principal. The judgment of those who appointed him to BAHS was fully vindicated for this youthful leader went on to serve the high school for nine years. Building on the platform laid by his predecessors, Wright lifted the profile of the annual school concert by thinking big. He hired the large Chandler Sports Complex. This venue had excellent seating capacity and very good acoustical properties. As a good administrator, Wright was ever happy to support initiatives undertaken by his teachers. For example, in 1985 teachers Mr Phillip Knight and Mrs Neroli Douglas advanced music making to a higher level. Knight in the form of a Concert Band and Douglas inaugurated a Handbell Choir. The set of instruments which constituted this Bell Choir were worth over $10 000, but had been acquired at a reduced price from a Melbourne music teacher, Mrs Judith Stanton. Mrs Stanton was happy to sell the bells to BAC Secondary as she was no longer using them and was delighted to see them continue in an Adventist school. Under the guidance of Douglas, the students quickly gained musical proficiency and in their first year gained a place in the Brisbane Music Competition for Secondary Schools. This, however, was not the end of the fame of the Handbell Choir. In 1986 the Handbell Choir applied for, and were granted, membership in the Handbell Society of Australasia and also the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers. That same year they participated in the National Handbell Festival. This was, however, only the beginning of the role they would play in bringing accolades to their school. In 1987 they toured south to Cooranbong and Sydney. They also gave public performances in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, in City Hall, and twice appeared on TV Channel Seven. In addition they played at churches, cathedrals, weddings, and at a number of shopping centres. In 1987 they produced an audiocassette appropriately called Sacred Bells.
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