School Renewal Action Plan - St Thomas More College

“Premium ingredients?” she inquired.
“Super-premium! Nothing but triple A.” He was on a roll. He never saw the next line coming.
“Mr. Vollmer,” she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, “when you are standing
on your receiving dock and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?”
In the silence of that room, you could hear a pin drop, but he wasn’t going to lie.
“I send them back.”
She jumped to her feet. “That’s right!” she barked, “and we can never send back our blueberries. We take
them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant.
We take them with ADHD, physical impairments, and English as their second language. We take them all!
Every one! And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it’s not a business. It’s school!”
So let tonight be a celebration of the true meaning of education - a celebration of our students, our staff
and all in our school community who value a holistic education – an education that is more wholesome and
more life giving than OPs or standardised tests. We know that our students are not always perfect. We
know that life does not give everyone the same opportunities and some students have bigger challenges.
We also know that students have achieved in schools and went on to have perfectly well functioning lives
well before we had those of the corporate world tell us how to educate children.
So as we reflect on our story of change, 2012 marks an important point in our vision to provide
opportunities for all students. This will be the first group of Year 12 students who graduate as the
beneficiaries of the changes introduced following our curriculum review in 2010. They have had access to
10 new subjects and new opportunities which have been added to our senior curriculum – added through
the dedication of curriculum leaders and teachers. They are the first cohort to –
graduate with the benefit of better access to TAFE and University courses through the Bendigo
Bank Bus,
the first cohort Maths C students in well over a decade,
the first cohort of ESL English students,
the first group who have had the opportunity to select from a broad curriculum which values the
academic or vocational aspirations of our learners – 86 Year 12 students with access to 30 senior
subjects plus university and TAFE subjects. A curriculum which reflects the diversity of our learners.
Jamie Vollmer has since grown from his experience at the meeting. His company still only uses the finest
ingredients in manufacturing ice cream. However, he now states proudly on his website that his primary
goal is to help teachers and work with them to create schools that unfold the full potential of every child.
From the day we opened the doors in 1974 this College has always been about unfolding the full potential
in every child – no matter what their challenges or imperfections. I thank all staff for their commitment to
this ideal and let us remember this as tonight we celebrate the successes of our students in 2012.
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