Ballarat High School Alumni Newsletter
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Yarrack Yarrack Edition 6.
Welcome to our sixth edition of the "Yarrack Yarrack" e-newsletter for the Ballarat High School alumni community. We welcome any new alumni to our e-newsletter. "Yarrack Yarrack" is produced twice a year and is full of news about our school and former students. You may notice a change in the spelling of the word "Yarrack", this is due to discrepancies in the spelling over the years and we've trawled through our Arch Magazines for the oldest reference to our war cry. We hope you enjoy!
We extend our deepest gratitude to all the alumni that have returned this year, shared their wisdom and inspired the next generation of students…
Sam Carr (Class of 2016)
Sam returned in Term 1 for our Year 12 Induction Assembly. After 14 months in the Soloman Islands where he was the Strength and Conditioning Coach Mentor for team Solomon Islands at the Pacific Games, he inspired the group to find what they truly love, to pursue it with unwavering effort and have the courage to try something different.
Term 1 we held our Vocational Major camp at the Snake Valley Golf Club. We always invite a panel of alumni to chat to the students about their career pathway. This year our students heard from...
Greg Middleton (Class of 1996)
Greg, a counsellor at the Ballarat Specialist School, reassured students that it was okay if they didn't know what their career pathway looked like. He was also unsure and was working a variety of odd jobs, before being offered a position at the Specialist School. His passion for his line of work has meant that he has upskilled along the way, resulting in the position he has now.
Tracey Nesci (Class of 2019)
Tracey, a very recent graduate, touched on being a female in trade and her apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. She discussed the reality of her job day-to-day and spoke with pride about some of the projects she gets to be a part of.
Ben Fogas (Class of 2009)
Ben, a qualified roof plumber and business owner, discussed his journey through his apprenticeship, working for a large plumbing firm, to a smaller business before going out on his own, and all the challenges along the way
As part of their curriculum, our Vocational Major students are required to log hours volunteering. To help inspire them with their course work we invited along to the VM camp in Term 1 alumni Adam Ridley and Ellie Carr.
Both Adam and Ellie discussed the importance of volunteering, how to get involved, their motivation to help others, how volunteering has impacted their career pathway, their proudest achievement as a volunteer and some of the challenges they face.
Adam Ridley (Class of 1997)
Adam volunteers his time as the Junior Cricket Coordinator and a coach at the Wendouree Cricket Club, he is also heavily involved at the Ballarat Swans Football Club.
Ellie Carr (Class of 2021)
Ellie volunteers as a senior educator at the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre in Gisborne, helping educate people on the preservation and conservation of the dingo population. Through our connection to Ellie, the students will gain experience volunteering at the Dingo Sanctuary this year.
Samantha Pennell (Class of 2008)
Samantha Pennell joined us for the Year 12 Fundraiser Night. She provided tips on stress management and discussed her varied career pathway. Samantha, the eldest of six siblings who attended BHS, pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree after school, discovered this wasn't for her, before graduating with a Bachelor of Laws and is now at Victoria Police as a Police Lawyer.
Jaimee Maika (Class of 1998)
Jaimee, a Wing Commander with the Royal Australian Air Force, graced us with her presence, donning her impressive flying suit straight from Headquarters Joint Operations Command!
Jaimee flew down from Canberra to join our Year 11 Leadership Camp, where she shared her awe-inspiring career journey. From commanding air operations in Afghanistan to aiding in earthquake evacuations in Nepal, and even supporting space operations in the U.S.
Our Year 7 students were also lucky enough to hear Jaimee's story, showing them the endless possibilities that come with an education from BHS!
Below are more photos from Jaimee's visit.
Ourschool EY Visit
Big 4 firm EY hosted a group of students as part of the Ourschool Industry Insights Session. Our students heard from a panel of EY employees about various career pathways, both in Australia and overseas. Yung Lam, from the BHS Class of 2010 was one of the panellists and took our students on a tour of the premises. Yung spoke of the opportunities EY offers, her move to Melbourne and Ballarat being her “happy place”. We thank EY and Ourschool for showing us what the large corporate world looks like and the endless possibilities available to our students.
What's happening in and around BHS?
New Principal
In Term 1 we welcomed Stephan Fields to BHS as Principal. Stephan commenced his education career in the United Kingdom, where he had more than 15 years in various teaching and leadership roles. In Ballarat, Stephan has worked at Ballarat & Clarendon College, Phoenix P-12 Community College and was previously Principal of Woodmans Hill Secondary College. In his welcoming address, his message to our community was clear...
It is an enormous
privilege to lead our school into the next exciting phase of its journey. I know that high expectations around our school values of pride, respect and responsibility reflect the values of our families and that we all share the same goal: that we are totally committed to supporting and preparing our students so that they can be the best that they can be, so that they can seize every opportunity that comes their way. The part that student voice and engagement will play in the positive changes our school will experience is critical, as is the role of our wider community in helping shape our future.
We are in this together!
I look forward to celebrating with you all the many successes and achievements of all our students in the coming years. This is going to be a great time to be a Ballarat High School student!
Take care,
Stephan Fields
Principal
Record Breaking Effort
In Term 1 we held our athletic sports and in an incredible display of athleticism, Jace Murray won 15 out of the 16 events he entered, he also broke five school records. Jace is the son of alum Ben Murray. Here's a little snapshot of his day. Did Jace break one of your records?
17 Years Boys Javelin - 1st, 49.46m
17 Years Boys High Jump - 1st, 1.60m
17 Years Boys Long Jump - 1st, 6.08m (New Record)
17 Years Boys Shot Put - 1st, 10.72m
17 Years Boys Discus - 1st, 43.13m (New Record)
17 Years Boys Triple Jump - 1st, 12.76m
17 Years Boys 100m - 1st, 12.12
17 Years Boys 200m - 2nd 26.12
18-20 Years Boys Long Jump - 1st, 5.90m
18-20 Years Boys Discus - 1st, 40.44m (New Record)
18-20 Years Boys High Jump - 1st, 1.86m (New Record)
18-20 Years Boys Javelin - 1st, 47.75m
18-20 Years Boys Shot Put - 1st, 10.72m
18-20 Years Boys Triple Jump - 1st, 12.76m (New Record)
18-20 Years Boys 100m - 1st, 11.71
18-20 Years Boys 200m - 1st, 26.61
Congratulations to Jace, an outstanding achievement that we may not witness again at our school.
JJ Sheehan Book Launch
Ballarat High School was honoured to host the book launch of Mark Sheehan’s "𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘐𝘕 𝘉𝘈𝘓𝘓𝘈𝘙𝘈𝘛, 𝘈 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 (𝘑𝘑) 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘯"
JJ Sheehan taught at BHS from 1947-1952 and returned to the school as Principal in 1972, a building at the school is named in his honour. The book, written by JJ Sheehan's son Mark, was officially launched by the The Hon. Steve Bracks AC in the historic Peacock Hall.
About the book: JJ Sheehan lived a life that touched on some of the great moments of 20th century Australia but always with Ballarat in his mind's eye. A gifted scholar and one of his generation's finest public speakers who commenced his legal career in the Depression but found his lifelong passion as a teacher. After service in the Pacific in WWII he returned to Ballarat and was elected MLA for Ballarat during the tumultuous Split of the Labor
Party when he was appointed Housing Minister. He returned to teaching after politics with his final role as Principal of Ballarat High School and continued his ideals of service to the Ballarat community until his death in 1984.
In his condolence motion to the Victorian Parliament, the Premier John Cain, who had known JJ Sheehan since boyhood, said: “This state, and Ballarat in particular, has lost an outstanding citizen and contributor to community life. Ballarat has lost a gifted son who did much for its youth.”
The book is available for purchase from the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute.
James Petrie Fundraising
A big thank you to all of our alumni who supported our Term 1 Easter Raffle in honour of former teacher James Petrie. The students raised over $3,200 that will be donated directly to the James Petrie Fund. Pictured here is James' sister Emma, with students Marshall and Noah.
Rowing Nationals
Our Senior Boys Division 1 crew went to Sydney for the 2024 Australian Rowing Championships late in Term 1. This was the first time since 2019 that a Ballarat High School crew competed at the championships.
The crew raced their heat, needing to come top four to skip the repechage but came a very close 5th. They were the 2nd fastest ranked crew going into the repechage. It was a very close race with the boys qualifying for the semi final by 0.6 of a second! The boys qualified for the B Final and went in with a terrific attitude to give it 100%. They started well, leading out of the blocks for the first few hundred metres but then the fatigue kicked in. They finished 6th in the B Final meaning they were ranked 12th in Australia, our best boys nationals result since 2018.
Congratulations to Loky Wallace, Rhys Webster, Matt Sorensen, Aiden Pynn and cox and captain Zoe Edwards. Big thank you to their coach Chris Nielsen, for doing a great job all season with the crew and team manager Traci Robins, for making the trip possible.
Celebrating 50 Years of the Boat Club
Lest we forget.
Whilst trawling our archives recently we came across a great story from World War I.
The Headmistress at Ballarat High School from 1907-1918, Jeanie Jobson, penned an open letter to the wounded of Gallipoli recuperating in hospital at Malta, after the deaths of five students and ten wounded stunned the school. The impact of the correspondence resulted in Ms Jobson, aided by staff members, penning thousands of letters to the troops until the end of the war. This story was published in the London Times and many Australian newspapers in 1915.
The original letter reads:
𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯
𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯'𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘶𝘱, 𝘢𝘴 𝘐
𝘥𝘪𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴, '𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯!' 𝘉𝘰𝘺𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥; 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵
𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘳'𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘮 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭, 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴. 𝘖𝘩, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶! ... 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘩
𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘨𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘴? 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘵, 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘦...
𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘥, 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘵
𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 -
𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯,
𝘑𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘰𝘯
Lest we forget.
Jasmine Goon...
We've been celebrating the achievements of Jasmine Goon, Class of 2023, whose Product Design Technology piece was selected for the prestigious Top Designs Exhibition, 2024. Jasmine's textiles garment, which she describes as ‘a utility jumpsuit for fine artists’ was amongst a high calibre of design pieces from across Victoria, in what was a very inspiring exhibition.
This is a remarkable achievement for Jasmine. This year only 92 works were selected for the exhibition from over 1,000 applications. Jasmine is one of 16 students whose work has been selected for Product Design - Textiles. Her work and process demonstrate the importance of the re-use of materials supporting environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Hannah McGuire (BHS 2013-2018)
Ballarat High School was saddened by the tragic loss of Hannah McGuire in April, a beloved member of our school alumni from the graduating class of 2018. Our deepest condolences go out to the McGuire family during this difficult time.
Getting involved...
Reunions
If you have a major reunion coming up, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 60 years, and would like to include a tour of the school, get in touch. Many reunions start with a tour of the school and then enjoy a catch up at an external venue afterwards. We're looking at hosting all reunion tour groups on Saturday, November 9, 2024.
Archive Committee
We're seeking expressions of interest from any alumni wishing to join an archive committee. This concept is in its infancy, however we're considering meeting once a month and cataloguing all of our precious historical artefacts, with guidance from professional archivists (yet to be sourced).
Previous Alumni Newsletters
If you've missed previous editions of Yarrack Yarrack, click the button to read all the alumni news including what's happening around BHS, alumni visits, alumni making the news, opportunities to return to the school and much more.
Change of details
If you've had a change of job, email address or have any further information you want to provide, please fill in the form and let us know.
Send Us News
We have many eyes keeping watch on what our alumni are up to but it's impossible to keep tabs on everyone. Send us through any celebrations that we can share with our alumni community.
What would you like to see?
This is a newsletter for you, about you. We would love your thoughts on anything you'd like to see in this newsletter. As our alumni program is still relatively new, we're keen to hear your thoughts on any interesting content you'd like for us to include. We aim to keep you up-to-date with the happenings around BHS, alumni achievements and any news that may be of interest.
There are so many ways you can give back to your former school. Please get in contact with alumni@ballaraths.net if you'd love to get involved or fill in the form on our website
.
Please forward this email to any contacts you may still have from the school. You may also like to follow our journey on Facebook and/or Linkedin, click the links below.
