It’s not every day a commercial television journalist plugs a show on an opposition channel, but this is a story that transcends network rivalry. It’s a story that Australians really need to know right now, in the face of the atrocities being committed around the world, many allegedly in the name of religion. This is a story of hope and love and achievement and respect. It’s about a bunch of kids and teachers who are so inspiring, that when I think about them, I get all teary. Their story also happens to be the new normal at my old school.
My former alma mater, Holroyd High, isn’t really the sort of school you’d associate with rabid old school tie sentiment. It’s a public school in Greystanes, in Sydney’s western suburbs, with not a boater in sight. By the time I was finishing Year 12 there in 1984, it was bursting at the seams. More than a thousand kids – a mix of working class Aussies and “new Australians” - ran rampant through its 1960s-built concrete blocks. It still wasn’t quite fashionable to be a “wog” but at least a quarter of the school population had surnames like Mifsud, Attard and Papatheodorou, children of the wave of southern Mediterranean immigrants who came to Australia in the ‘50s and ‘60s seeking a better life.
"My former alma mater isn’t really the sort of school you’d associate with rabid old school tie sentiment."
Holroyd was always up against it - an under-resourced, overcrowded, public school – but boy did we punch above our weight! We made it all the way to the Capitol Theatre to the 2SM Rock Eisteddfod finals, up against schools that actually had a school hall to practice in and loads of cash. We took on private schools in debating and won a few State competitions. We did pretty well for a little public school from Sydney’s west. But the new incarnation of the school and what it’s achieving now takes triumph in the face of adversity to a whole new level.
These days, six out of ten come from a refugee background. Since 1995, waves of refugee and asylum seeker children study in the same classrooms I once sat in. Almost all never had the start to life that I’d enjoyed. They come from nations torn apart by war - Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Burma, Somalia, Sierra Leone and more. Some have never been to school before arriving at Holroyd. Some arrive with a traumatic history. Some left parents behind and still don’t know what happened to them. Most speak little or no English.
"Holroyd was always up against it - an under-resourced, overcrowded, public school"
Children from at least 33 different countries are now enrolled at Holroyd. And for local kids like me, what a great opportunity to travel the globe without leaving home. Holroyd is like the United Nations. But I deeply suspect Holroyd’s a far more efficient, effective and cohesive organisation than anything you’d see in New York. What Holroyd and its staff, led by dynamic principal Dorothy Hoddinott are achieving is amazing.
Whenever I get to visit the school, I’m always bowled over by the mood of optimism in its corridors. It’s proof that education is not just about the three Rs. As far as I see it, there are two other R’s that underpin and fuel the culture at the school – respect and responsibility. It’s marvelous to see all the students at Holroyd doing what adults too often can’t.
"What it’s achieving now takes triumph in the face of adversity to a whole new level"
Remember, these are kids who don’t always have much in common with each other. They have different languages, culture and religion. Some are from countries at war with each other. Others are local kids who’d struggle to imagine the start some of their peers had to childhood. But what Holroyd High gives all its students is a common goal, a chance for all to reach their full potential through education, and the results speak for themselves.
Last year 54 per cent of Year 12 students at Holroyd High received first round university offers. The national average is 30 per cent. That’s a significant achievement and indicative of what is so special about what’s going on at the school. When I attended Holroyd, less than 15 per cent of us went on to university.
But don't just take it from me. Take it from the students and teachers themselves. They’re on Insight on Tuesday on SBS, sharing their stories of resilience, their aspirations and their triumphs.
If you want to be inspired, and want to see the Aussie notion of a "fair go" in practice, then tune in. I know I will be (after Seven News of course) with Kleenex on standby, because I’m just so bloody proud of all of them.
