Bagpipes, BBQ chicken and a barber helped turn around fortunes of Granville Boys High

It was the school with a rotten reputation that grabbed headlines for the wrong reasons, but now parents are desperate to get their children into it due to its miraculous transformation.

A few years ago Granville Boys High was a no-go zone. It had a rotten reputation and ended up on the news for all the wrong reasons. Parents were pulling their kids out in droves.

Now they are begging for their kids to get in. The turnaround has been so rapid and radical it’s almost as though this school of many faiths had God himself weigh in.

But this miracle has less to do with divine intervention than chicken and chips and bagpipes and buzzcuts.

The miracle worker is principal Noel Dixon. But he would hate to be called that and is quick to insist that it is his people — some of whom he catches still working at 10 o’clock at night — who make the good stuff happen. In short, everyone.

“This community’s been good for me and I want to be good for this community as well,” says Dixon, who grew up in south west Sydney and took his very first teaching job at Granville in 1985.

Principal Noel Dixon (centre) has made some huge changes at Granville Boys High and there has been a huge reaction. He is pictured with Mithun Roka 13, S.farhan Hussaini, 13, Marshal Zhu, 13, Amir Taha, 13, and Ghassan Alameddine, 13. Picture: Justin Lloyd

And there is a lot of good stuff going on. Let’s start with the chicken.

Everyone in Western Sydney knows that El Jannah chicken is the best. So when it came to stopping playground punch-ons, Dixon had an idea: Any kid who stopped a fight would be rewarded with chicken and chips from the El Jannah down the road.

Any kid that stops a fight at Granville Boys High gets a free chicken and chips from El Jannah.

“In the old days boys would run to watch the playground fight, now they run to break it up,” he says.

“Most times they stop the fight before a punch has been thrown. It’s great chicken. We have very few fights at Granville Boys these days.”

It’s so simple it borders on genius. And Granville has a few of those as well.

Just this week The Sunday Telegraph found out a group of their students had won a berth in the finals of an international robotics competition and will soon be heading to the US to compete against the best in the world. They will be the only Australian school there.

Principal Noel Dixon has brought bagpipes into the school. Imran El Moubayed, 14, Abdullah Hussain, 14, and Reda Alhasani, 14, are all part of the band. Picture: Justin Lloyd

That is an astronomical achievement for a school that parents once played dodge ball with. Now they are flooding the joint.

“I actually have people calling me asking us to get their kids into the school,” P & C vice-president Rema Zreika says. “They say ‘How are we going to get our kids in?’”

One had called that very morning.

Granville has gone from 500 students in 2020 to more than 700 today. Year 7 enrolments have doubled from 82 to 162 in four years. The word “miracle” fails to do it justice.

Central to this is a focus on excellence. Western Sydney is the heartland of high hopes. Parents want their kids to succeed and Granville has a laser-like focus on making that happen. All students attain their HSC or equivalent no matter what it takes.

To this end Dixon axed one of three deputy principal roles and redirected the money to a Saturday morning tutoring session. He’s there himself most weeks.

Part of it is also discipline and pride. Pity the student he comes across who isn’t wearing his uniform properly.

Granville’s most legendary initiative is its barber shop. Gun barber Hussein Jubouri, 17, with Safa Alassadi, 12. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Half a dozen broke land speed records getting their gear right during The Sunday Telegraph’s visit.

This brings us to the school’s most legendary initiative, a barber shop where all the students can get a free haircut.

Their gun barber Hussein says the kids come in looking scruffy and go out looking sharp. This makes them feel proud and him feel proud.

A bunch of local police officers also came in that morning to get their short back and sides. Years ago they would have been visiting the school for very different reasons.

As for the pipe band, that really is all the principal.

He’s a mad piper and now his students are even more fierce.

When we ask one to smile for the camera he says: “Bagpipers are supposed to look scary. That’s what pride looks like.”

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