GRANT High School principal Fleur Roachock is striving to deliver the optimum educational platform and inspiring students to pursue their passions.
From creating school communities to the establishment of an innovative new learning space, the dedicated local has been recognised in this year’s South Australian Public Education Awards for her outstanding commitment to education.
Working as principal of the public school for the past two years, Ms Roachock has worked alongside other staff to improve relationships, well-being and decision making among students.
A new space called “The Hub” was recently opened for students of all ages to connect with others and explore independent study.
“The Hub is a place where students can come any time from 8am to 5pm for supervised study, mindfulness activities or to get a bit of extra help with their homework,” Ms Roachock said.
“We have two trainees, one who is a maths and science specialist and one who is an arts specialist who support students while they are here.
“Over half of our staff have also volunteered to come in as well to help those students.”
Ms Roachock said the space is a great place for children of any academic level to come together and support each other.
“Kids in here are like-minded and really want to study,” she said.
“When Year 10s in particular have a maths test coming up, we really pull a great crowd.”
Over the past year the school has also developed school communities to help build better relationships with students and ensure they are on the right path to reach their goals.
“We are divided into four communities in the main stream part of the school plus our flexible learning community, which is mostly Year 11s and 12s with significant barriers to their learning,” Ms Roachock said.
“Each community has a leader and manager who will be with them for the whole five years they are at school.
“We are trying to make a big school behave like a small school in that kind of way.”
As for future projects, Ms Roachock said they will be undergoing a timetable reform in 2019, with students undertaking six subjects instead of seven.
“We think we will be able to use much more innovative teaching and learning styles in a simpler timetable,” she said.
“Next year we will open up the timetable and reduce constraints students have around year levels in choosing their subjects.
“Rather than saying you have to choose Year 9 subjects because you are in Year 9, it will be you can choose subjects at the level you need based on talent and skill.
“We are hoping that by reducing the number of compulsory subjects they can accelerate in areas they are most passionate about.”
As a finalist in the awards, Ms Roachock will attend the awards night in October, where she will be presented with either $20,000 as winner or $10,000 as runner up to go towards further professional development.
“I’m really excited about what the school is doing and where we are heading,” she said.
“You don’t come into this for individual accolades at all and I’m not doing all of the work by any stretch.
“We have amazing staff here and we are hopeful that this will make a difference to the outcomes of students – that is the main thing.”
Ms Roachock is a finalist for the Teachers Health Leadership Award in the public education program.
