“Excuse me,” says Bairnsdale Secondary College principal Tony Roberts, bending over to pick up a muesli bar wrapper flapping in the grass. “Can’t help myself.”
Roberts is passionate about setting a good example to the 1158 students at the college, which sprawls across 1720 square metres at the western end of the East Gippsland regional centre and was once described on national TV as “Australia’s worst school”.
But six years after that low point, Bairnsdale Secondary has turned its culture around.
Bairnsdale Secondary College students (from left) Zane Marsh, Mary Poynton, Mitchell Casse, Madison Flynn, Harriet Campbell and Tahlia Hare.Credit: Simon Schluter
At the college’s lowest points, some of its teachers were suicidal and some were battling post-traumatic stress disorder, amid claims of educators being shoulder-charged or pushed down stairs by students.
Learning specialist Kelly Mills had just started her first job at Bairnsdale Secondary in mid-2019 when a report on the school aired on A Current Affair.
“Some [teachers] left damaged, even disabled at what could be Australia’s worst school,” the reporter read.
But Mills has seen things change since the school was singled out for unwanted national attention. “Sometimes it feels like when I come to work every day, it’s a different place to what it was six years ago,” Mills said.
The school had been battling a bad reputation even before ACA’s story, former principal Trudie Nagle told The Age. “The general community didn’t have faith, didn’t trust the school,” she said.
When Nagle started in 2020, bushfires were ripping through East Gippsland, burning 1,363,100 hectares, killing four people and destroying hundreds of houses. The army and firefighters took over the school as a base.
“Before I even had the keys to the school, the army wanted to occupy the school. They could use it as a place to rest and be fed,” she said.
The Australian Defence Force set up an operation base at Bairnsdale Secondary College in 2020.Credit: Joe Armao
“In a very backhanded way, [the fires] almost kind of brought the school community together a little bit.”
The 1158-strong student cohort is diverse: more than 100 are Indigenous, an increasing number don’t speak English as a first language, and many come from varying degrees of socioeconomic disadvantage. Students travel from as far as Dargo and Lakes Entrance to attend the school.
Nagle and Roberts – who was a senior education improvement leader with the Department of Education at the time – put together the 2019-2023 School Strategic Plan.
They used surveys of student, parent and staff satisfaction, as well as VCE, NAPLAN and Compass data to build a dispiriting picture. They found student attitudes towards the school were the worst in Victoria and “teacher efficacy” was in the lowest 10 per cent in the state.
Defence force personnel at Bairnsdale Secondary College during the fires in 2020.Credit: Joe Armao
Students had low expectations of themselves and the school. Compass data showed attendance in individual classes among the lowest levels in Victoria, and capable students entering year 7 had become failing students by year 10.
Staff felt “helpless” and had become despondent due to poor student outcomes.
“It was most definitely the most challenging school that I’ve ever worked in,” said Nagle. “Changing a culture is the most difficult thing to do at any school.”
But Nagle and Roberts, who took over as principal at the start of 2024, did it.
After the smoke had cleared from Black Summer, Nagle ran community round tables at the school, welcomed feedback and acted on it. She and Roberts opened the school up to community criticism, acknowledged their failures and were collaborative about a way forward.
Principal Tony Roberts says “ground zero” is for every student to have someone who believes in them. Credit: Simon Schluter
Nagle said it was not easy. Staff needed to know she had their backs, as she rebuilt the “struggling” welfare team and recruited staff with a focus on teaching and learning. A positive behaviour program was established, student-teacher relationships prioritised, and the school cracked down on poor classroom behaviour.
“We did a lot of work in that area, to be very clear and consistent in what we were doing and the way we were approaching things. And again, you never do that sort of work without upsetting some people,” the former principal said.
“It’s very slow, but the culture began to build and change.”
Australian Catholic University Associate professor of educational leadership Paul Kidson said tensions were felt keenly in regional school communities where people could not avoid each other.
He said behavioural issues continued to be a huge issue in schools and that parents were increasingly prepared to be abusive, threatening or aggressive towards teachers or principals.
But understanding that some parents held trauma from their schooldays could help in restoring relationships, the academic told The Age.
“It’s a courageous leader to say, ‘you know what, not everything’s going quite as well as we would like, and now we need to fix some stuff up’,” Kidson said. “And that should be applauded, because it’s naive to assume that any school and every school has no problem.”
The state Department of Education back the efforts of Nagle and Roberts with “intensive school support”, which helps plan strategy and turn plans into actions. The program has given Bairnsdale access to experts in things like transformative leadership and connected the school with high-performing colleges across the state. There is capacity for 225 schools to get intensive school support between 2024 and 2027.
“While we have improved since 2019 we have a long way to go, and we need to engage in that process with rigour and our eyes and ears open to better ways of doing things,” Roberts said.
Bairnsdale almost doubled the number of year 12 students accepted into university between 2019 and 2024, from 31 to 54, as well as the number of year 12 students accepted into apprenticeships from 29 to 58.
Roberts said every number, every VCE score or NAPLAN result, reflected someone’s life.
“Every time that improves, a group of students feel more confident, they feel more successful. It’s like a tidal wave that’s gaining momentum.”
Maddison Flynn is a senior student leader and is proud to be a student at Bairnsdale. “We’ve come a long way since that initial [TV report]. In a way, it’s laughed at now. That’s not the case at all.”
Flynn said relationships between students and teachers were now respectful, and she herself benefited from the school’s wellbeing team.
“It really helped me want to stay in school,” she said.
In a cacophony of teenage quips, with ping pong balls flying and students grabbing bread rolls for lunch, Will Maynard, an operations officer at Indigenous empowerment organisation Clontarf, describes how the program helps engage Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander boys to finish school. Students names are listed in black on a whiteboard, with percentages for attendance next to them. If they meet their benchmarks they get rewards like going on school camps.
Student support officer Latrell Harrison, 18, said he wouldn’t have made it so far in his schooling without the program. “If I had a bad day they encouraged me to keep going. It’s pretty important. They just encourage me to be the best version of myself.”
Society, says Roberts, can be quick to judge students. While he has zero tolerance for physical violence or bullying, there is a symbiotic relationship between wellbeing and learning.
“You can become a better person. That starts with every student here feeling like an adult believes in them. That’s the ground zero,” he said.
Learning specialist Mills said teachers weren’t just someone students saw in their school day.
“You are someone who is going to have an impact on them for the rest of their life,” she said.
“We work in education because we want what’s best for the students. So if you just keep that at the front of your mind … we are living proof you can turn it around.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.