TV

0:00 This this recognition is a great opportunity to showcase for potential new employees as well when we're um advertising for new positions so that

0:08 they know what what we're doing here at Barham High School is making an impact across a lot of other areas.

0:23 Hello and welcome to the Educator TV.

0:26 I'm Kylie Spear and joining me today is Brendan Yu, principal at Baram High School. Baram High School has been named

0:34 as a winner of the educator five-star best schools for 2026.

0:40 Welcome to you Brendan. Huge congratulations and thank you so much for joining us today.

0:47 Hi Kylie, thanks so much. Um yeah, we're very proud of the fact that we've been judge of fivestar best school. Um, it's a tremendous recognition for the school community.

0:57 Well, firstly, Brendan, beyond the recognition itself, what has this five-star result meant in practical

1:04 terms? Has it changed how families outside your usual catchment are hearing about the school?

1:10 It certainly has. It gives our community trust that they um are sending their students, their children to a false

1:18 school. It gives us great recognition as well. But as well as that, this this recognition is a great opportunity to showcase for potential new employees as

1:27 well when we're um advertising for new positions so that they know what what we're doing here at Barham High School is making an impact across um a lot of other areas.

1:37 Barum draws students across the New South Wales Victoria border from towns like Kunduk, Marabit, and Mullamine.

1:45 What does access look like for a family in one of those feeder communities in terms of transport subject choice and extracurricular reach?

1:57 Yeah, it is um in our area we're very fortunate to have um transport for these students to travel on the bus. So, we've

2:05 got students come from Wain, which is close to 50 minutes each way for a student to travel, which is a long distance. Um but we they're very well

2:14 supported once they get here as well. So we've got a brekie club available for these students. Um but the fact that we can have local vet options like tertiary

2:23 uh options for our students here at Barham High School. So they don't have to go offsite to attend tapes. They can do it all here as part of our HSSE

2:32 curriculum. Also, Brendan, your enrollment has grown for two consecutive years and the school's own reporting notes, that's a first.

2:42 What changed with respect to the family's decision making? And has the school adapted to make the most of that growth?

2:51 Yeah, it's it's been a great journey for us. Um, and obviously the more students, the more opportunities we can offer our families. We introduced free education

3:00 as part of our um plan for public education and part of that it's been a transition so it hasn't all been in one

3:06 year but we we provide a free shirt and jersey for every new enrollment but as well we've taken away a um subject

3:14 specific fees and we've also included um free cryum excursions so three-day camps and things like that are covered by the

3:21 school rather than families having to concentrate on trying to find the money to help their children go on these amazing experiences. We make sure that

3:30 financial barriers aren't an issue for our community and um it's obviously helped a lot of students be able to enjoy a great curriculum. The enrollment

3:40 growth is unbelievable. Like it's just been um great for all of our students to have a great mixture of students joining

3:48 us. We've actually gone from 122 kids to 212 um over the course of four years. So we're we're projecting to be even higher

3:56 next year. and and if you know if the trend continues potentially over 300 in the not so distant future too. Um more

4:03 staff comes with that as well. So as the school student numbers grow we also get um additional staffing which helps

4:11 allows us to run the one of the broadest curriculums going around. That's phenomenal growth. Congratulations.

4:19 With a working farm on campus and a dedicated K12 career education initiative, how do those specifically

4:28 rural assets translate into pathways a metro school couldn't offer?

4:33 Uh we we are very fortunate where we live in our rural community and to have an eggplot down on our actual school site is amazing. So we we actually run a

4:42 cattle stud as well. Um so we have red pole steers um that we greed up and we sell on but we also do a lot of showing

4:49 as well for our sheep. So to be able to provide uh agriculture in New South Wales is a optional um elective that we

4:58 can learn in new 78 but we we think it's really important that all of our students understand where the food and fiber that they interact with every day

5:06 comes from. So that's why we include it as part of our curriculum. It gives our students footstep into a different

5:14 world because we've got traditionally um there was a lot of people out on farms who attended our school whereas now a

5:21 lot of people are in town who are accessing the eggplot as well. So it's great to see that we can build up those lifelong skills for our students um and

5:30 to be able to have that at our doorstep is amazing too. The work experience work placement that we are able to provide gets our kids out to actual job ready

5:38 skills. So, we've seen a lot of pathways for our kids with ESPATS. Um, and it's been an amazing asset for our school.

5:45 And finally, Brendan, as a small rural school competing in the same awards category as much larger regional and metro schools, what's the next priority?

5:56 Is it facilities, staffing, or something else to keep the pace?

6:01 Oh, look, and I think the other thing to add on to that too, colleague, we're we're a government public school, too, which we're we're so very proud of, too.

6:08 So um look for us we want to make sure we're doing the great things that we are you know with enrollment growth it's

6:15 always uh important to make sure we're still doing our core business really well which we've been recognized as well for our growth for our students from

6:23 year seven and nine. So we have an explicit teaching model which allows our students to have additional literacy and numeracy periods um across that time

6:31 frame to be able to give them one of the best educations going around. So it always comes back to our core business of of teaching. Um with the bigger

6:40 numbers like our curriculum is really quite broad for our students and we've got a really exciting opportunity over the next 18 months as well where we're

6:47 introducing a new um vet automotive um opportunity as well for our students with the with the hopefully with the

6:56 vision to be able to offer that in year 11 and 12 in uh 2028. Dude, the year is getting away with it.

7:05 That sounds awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today and congratulations to you and the whole high school once again on a brilliant and clearly welldeserved result.

7:17 Brendan, thank you very much Kyle. Look, it doesn't happen with just one individual.

7:22 It is a absolute school community um input into this. We sat down as a school staff and tried to work out what our

7:30 pathway would be at the start of 23 um when when commenced as principal to try and map out a pathway of what we want our students to achieve and what

7:38 opportunities we want to be able to offer. So our staff have done an amazing job. They go above and beyond and I cannot thank them enough and also to to

7:46 our families and community to be able to trust us um for what to enroll your children at our school. every student

7:54 who attends our school um I believe and my my son's going to be studying year seven next year I believe is getting one of the best educations going around and

8:03 the fact that we can do that in our small community without our student without uh children having to leave and off to other schools you get to see your

8:11 kid grow and that's the most important part. So thank you very much uh also to the educator and you know it is really important for public health little

8:19 education providers to be able to showcase all the amazing things that we all do. So well done.

8:26 Well said Brendan and thank you of course to our viewers for watching the latest episode of the Educator TV. We look forward to seeing you again soon.