North Geelong Secondary College assistant principal Brad Headlam has received the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals award for his work on the Be Bold Be Heard program. He speaks with Jena Carr about the award and the importance of ensuring young people have a voice within their communities.
Ocean Grove’s Brad Headlam loves finding ways to help young people realise their voice and use it within their communities.
In 2018, the North Geelong Secondary College assistant principal explored regional data alongside other principals and discovered something troubling.
He found that students aged 14, 15 and 16 across Years 9 and 10 felt “unhappy about their opportunity to use their voice in school”.
“Girls were rating well below that than boys and we started a bit of an exploration as to what was going on,” he said.
“We started to talk to the students, and the students highlighted that they love their schools, they enjoy their schools, but in the classroom, they don’t feel like they get much of a say.
“We talked to students and found that getting all the students together at a forum where they could collaborate, share ideas and maybe take action would be a way of improving that area.”
Brad helped set up the Be Bold Be Heard program to build student confidence. The program began with three schools and now has 15 schools across Geelong, including Tarneit.
“They (schools) send about five to 20 students from each school to participate in four forums per year, which are designed to build up their confidence,” he said.
“(It also) teaches them how to set actions and get them speaking up to people such as principals or members of the community to elicit a change that they think is important for their college.
“The girls do a fantastic job with the actions they put in place, and the students set up their theories as to why things aren’t as great as they could be in their schools.”
Brad said the program was “greatly rewarding and really successful” in helping reduce the gender gap by students helping make a change in their school community.
“I think it’s important that, and particularly me being a male, I share that I’m here to listen and empower students to take action for the rest of your life,” he said.
“I have a daughter, and I don’t like feeling that students in our teenage years feel that distant from boys in the way in which they can share their ideas or thoughts in the classroom or the college.
“We’ve got 150 students now that participate in a volleyball program because girls felt that was more accessible to them.
“To use that to go and, ‘we’re going to now change our uniform so we feel more comfortable’, and incidentally we have huge numbers of girls participating in our sports programs this year as a result.”
Brad recently received the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals award for his work on the Be Bold Be Heard program.
He said the funding from the award allowed him to explore what other schools worldwide are doing to provide a voice for their students.
“It was a professional learning award, and it was of the amount of $5000 to spend on my learning and my development,” he said.
“I was overwhelmed, thrilled and really excited. I then had to work out what I would do with the money I was given as it (the program) was a project I’m working on that has been fantastic in the community.
“I wanted to improve it and find ways to lead that better. So, when the dust settled, I looked into it and saw an opportunity to go to a conference in Canada.
“I want the community to know that our girls are having a crack at making a difference, that people are supporting that and that there are positive programs out there to build the voice of girls.”
