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Ocean Grove Voice, September 5-18, 2012 - Page 17
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Building a sense of community AFTER being at the helm of Oberon High School for four years Alison Murphy is now Principal of Bellarine Secondary College, writes Jessica Grace. In a career that has successfully spanned over three colleges Alison said she hoped to bring a strong sense of community to her new position. “I live on the Bellarine Peninsula so this is my local school. I’ve always liked the notion of living and working within your own community and that being a holistic approach to your life,” she said. “The opportunity to become principal of Bellarine with families and students from my community is what I was really looking for so that’s why I chose to apply and was really excited to have got that.” After seven years at Matthew Flinders under the guidance of a supportive Principal Alison said she felt ready to lead her own school. “I worked under a terrific Principal who encouraged me and gave me lots of opportunities to lead,” she said. “So I decided to apply for Oberon and I got that. It was a wonderful place to work and I really enjoyed the climate
within the school and my time there until this opportunity arose.” Alison said her priorities in leading Bellarine centre around building strong relationships between parents, teachers and students. “My priorities lie in that sense of community, so my work is very much around trying to build a holistic community, a school that’s connected strongly to its parents,” she said. “Where the relationships between student, teacher and the parents are real and so support the learning of the student.” Alison believes that school is more than just an educational institution and is very committed to the development of the whole child. “We’re not just dealing in education, we’re dealing in the well being and development of young people and developing them as critical thinkers,” she said. “People who make sound decisions for themselves, we need our young people leaving school to have the ability to seek information and to make good decisions for their lives.” Alison said this enables the student to go forward in life and be able to form good
relationships which is critical. “Literacy and numeracy underpin all of that, you’ve got to have literate people, your students need to leave with a skill level where they’re able to function as community members,” she said. “The actual content of other things within their courses though is not as important to me as the development of particular skills that are going to set them up well for their lives after school.” In her time as teacher and Principal Alison said whilst a lot of things within school are still the same the increase in technology and social media in a young person’s live is massive. “The impact that that’s had on their lives, whilst it can be amazingly positive and can enrich all of our lives and open us up in lots of different ways, it can also leave us fairly vulnerable,” she said. “Young people have a lot of pressure on them around social media there’s always been peer pressure that was around when I was at school that’s been going on forever. “I think now though those things are acted out in a much more public manner exposing young people more. The
potential for it to be wonderful is definitely there but also to be problematic.” Alison believes another trend that has emerged in recent years is that some parents are harder to engage with the school then they once were. “There have always been families who the parents weren’t that engaged with the school but I think it’s easier for parents to engage with primary schools then it is with secondary,” she said. “I think parents find teenagers to be a little bit more difficult at times and a little more challenging and so the whole relationship with school can be harder for parents to form a positive relationship.” Alison believes if a child is struggling or going through a difficult phase that can mean parents don’t feel as at ease coming into the school. “That’s why I think it’s just so important that we break that barrier down, we work hard at building that relationship through the classroom and every interaction we have with the student,” she said. Alison said she wants Bellarine to be based on excellence, not just in education and learning but in everything they do.
NEW HEAD: Alison Murphy.
“That’s something that really important to me, that we do the very best that we can and our community is confident in us that’s what they will receive when they come here,” she said.
“To have made certain when I leave I’m leaving a school as an organisation that strives for quality service, quality education and quality relationships in the community.”