berengarra

I press Send and 1550 words fly away. They are destined for the Inbox of the principal of Berengarra School. Eighteen years ago I am its departing principal. Overseeing the life of this unique place is the pinnacle of my working life. The school and its staff and the seven years I spend at Berengarra teach me more enduring professional and  life lessons than any other experience.

Pete, the current principal, engages me to write the copy for their new website. The place has changed in 18 years but I have its essence. I sit with Pete at lunchtime and we hammer out the kinks in the script I’ve written. I come home and edit, edit, edit. I like the result.

In preparing the copy, I read the staff and curriculum handbooks. A page titled The other Berengarra in the staff handbook captures why this school means so much to me, why I become its principal 22 years ago but will never be the principal anywhere else.

I think a younger Nerys wrote The other Berengarra. The writing feels like hers. I appoint her to her first teaching job and later she wins a Victorian teacher of the year award. In 1993 I jointly present a conference paper with her in Fremantle. We research it together but she writes it. It’s unlikely I’d allow my name on a paper written by anyone else.

She writes that the school “encourages its staff to be first and foremost people in their own right and encourages them to show themselves to students as unique and varied individuals who are able to work together as a team.” Teachers are meant to behave like this.

She continues: “This school encourages its teachers to relate to kids in an alive, energetic and real way. We encourage teachers to use … spontaneity, lateral thinking and intuition in their dealings with students.” Truly shocking stuff.

She describes how Berengarra puts “a great deal of faith in the professional nous of its teachers” and “that this faith in the individual teacher is balanced by being part of a supportive staff team, both for its own sake and to serve as an example to kids.” Surely we can’t have this going on in schools?

Berengarra spoiled education for me by showing me what it can be, even with the most difficult kids: effective, common sense, and above all, respectful of young people. Far too many schools and teachers talk about respecting kids but have little or no idea what that is in practice. Teachers perpetrate a lot of the bullying and harassment in schools.

What I like about my current job with MM is its potential to change school ethos and culture. Reading The other Berengarra reinforced the value of the professional development that MM is, or could be.

Rock on.