A brand new high school in Victoria

[Joseph41]

So I see that, as of Term 1 next year, Preston High School will be a thing. It'll be on the site of what was Preston Girls' Secondary College, which closed a while ago.

Made me think.

Would you want to go to a brand new school? How important is existing culture and the like when you're choosing a school to attend? There's so much to consider, and it must be such a gargantuan job.

Any thoughts on this? Anybody been to a very new school before?

[hums_student]

Would you want to go to a brand new school? How important is existing culture and the like when you're choosing a school to attend? There's so much to consider, and it must be such a gargantuan job.

Any thoughts on this? Anybody been to a very new school before?

I went to a 'new' school for a year and a half back in Sydney during year 7 and 8, though it wasn't completely new since it had already been operating for 2 years when I joined. It was pretty weird at first, to go from a primary school with about 1000 kids to a high school with less than 400. We sort of treated the year 9s (known as the 'foundation year kids') as year 12s. I remember the principal doing a LOT of trial-and-error especially with extra curricular subjects, and the foundation year kids were often treated like guinea pigs by the staff. But overall it just operated like any other school. (It was kinda weird when I moved to Melbourne though and was suddenly plunged into a school with 6 full year levels)

Also it was pretty cool that we got to have a pretty large influence over the culture of the school, a lot of the school traditions the students follow now were created by us. Our year level also helped write the 'school constitution'  - we had a say in how the school should be run and apparently they're still following it now. We also helped with writing the school song which was pretty amazing.

I have a friend who goes to the relatively new Suzanne Cory High School, she joined the school in its fifth year, and according to her their year level also had a say in writing the school song. I guess writing the school song is a pretty common experience if you go to a new school.

[Joseph41]

Bumping thread slightly as I missed this response at the time:

I went to a 'new' school for a year and a half back in Sydney during year 7 and 8, though it wasn't completely new since it had already been operating for 2 years when I joined. It was pretty weird at first, to go from a primary school with about 1000 kids to a high school with less than 400. We sort of treated the year 9s (known as the 'foundation year kids') as year 12s. I remember the principal doing a LOT of trial-and-error especially with extra curricular subjects, and the foundation year kids were often treated like guinea pigs by the staff. But overall it just operated like any other school. (It was kinda weird when I moved to Melbourne though and was suddenly plunged into a school with 6 full year levels)

Also it was pretty cool that we got to have a pretty large influence over the culture of the school, a lot of the school traditions the students follow now were created by us. Our year level also helped write the 'school constitution'  - we had a say in how the school should be run and apparently they're still following it now. We also helped with writing the school song which was pretty amazing.

I have a friend who goes to the relatively new Suzanne Cory High School, she joined the school in its fifth year, and according to her their year level also had a say in writing the school song. I guess writing the school song is a pretty common experience if you go to a new school.

What's the perception of that school now, would you say? That's sort of what I'm wondering: like, how does a school build a positive reputation? What sort of work needs to go in behind the scenes?

Good point on the culture thing - that would definitely be a perk IMO. Can really set the school up for future generations.

[not.yet.a.nerd]

My friend's sister was the first year level to go through nossal, she said that her year found all the younger year levels annoying, as though the school they viewed as their domain was taken from them (but maybe that's just all the older year levels  ). I think that would be such a strange experience, to see your school slowly filling up each year. It would definitely be an interesting high school experience for those first few first year levels!

[Aaron]

I have kept up with the development of the new schools being built in Vic. I'm after a permanent ongoing job in a school and being extremely young (in terms of teachers... I don't think i've met a teacher younger than me yet), I have an opportunity to stamp my authority in a truly meaningful manner somewhere. The new schools are being designed with a "21st century" focus in mind - collaboration, creativity, innovation etc...

The traditional classrooms with rows of tables and chairs really just doesn't work anymore, especially in the lower years of secondary schooling. I was fortunate enough to start my teaching career in a school that had already moved away from that traditional classroom approach to a more hands-on, collaborative model.. so I am well prepared to enter one of these schools if I was to decide on making the move.

I guess from a teaching point of view, a few things:

- An opportunity to help contribute meaningfully to the development of a school. It's essentially a blank canvas where your input and ideas will truly be valued. I imagine this would be the same for the foundation students that enter the school. The culture and environment needs to be developed, whereas in existing schools, this has already been set.

- New schools start with Year 7 and build one year every year from there. For teachers, if they are going to commit to something like this, they understand that an opportunity to teach VCE won't be available for several years. This is playing on my mind as I need this VCE experience to market myself as an all-rounder.

- New schools have the funding and capacity to offer permanent positions as opposed to fixed-term contracts. I've been thrown around in contracts for some time now and all I really want is something permanent so I have security. I would potentially give up one of my teaching methods if it meant secure employment.

- Leadership roles early... another thing I am very interested in. I've done a year now teaching.. I'm somebody who gets bored very easily and needs to be constantly stimulated. In my first term of teaching, I was already comfortable and bored and wanting more (explored the roles of daily organiser / yr 7 coordinator). A new school provides that opportunity to get into a leadership area of interest early. We all want to grow, be better and have ownership/responsibility to contribute to the life of a school..... and i'm no different! With a high student population means more teachers, and more teachers means less opportunities to fill positions of responsibility. Some established schools would rather go down the route of the 'safe' option (e.g. a teacher who has been doing the same role for 10+ years as opposed to somebody new who can bring fresh ideas).

- No curriculum developed/documented, meaning a ton more work in terms of outside-of-classroom work.

Aesthetics and new buildings have always appealed to me - the environment for me is extremely important.. it's like a motivating factor for me to be better. The new schools appeal to me because of this reason. One of my main motivations to get into teaching was to mentor, help people develop and to share my love of IT/computing with students. With a blank canvas school, it makes things a lot easier. An existing school already has its priorities set out and culture developed, meaning it makes things A LOT more difficult if you were to say... implement change.

Personally, I wouldn't pick a school to work at that didn't have a focus on digital technologies at all. Alarm bells ring whenever the statement "ICT is integrated across all areas of the curriculum" is used in handbooks/guides rather than dedicated classes focusing on STEM, coding, robotics, all those innovative 21st century areas that are being neglected by majority of schools to-date... being informed in this area and IT being my primary teaching method, it really is distasteful and is a massive turn off when seeking employment.

Pros and cons. I think it would be an absolutely fantastic and a rare opportunity for students to help shape a new school. You don't get the chance to do that very often.