Ballarat High School students have delivered teachers a lesson of their own during a staff professional development day.
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The topic of the day: diversity in all its forms and how the school can better cater to the diverse needs of its learners.
Year 11 student leaders, who had reviewed the findings of a recent student opinion survey, worked on projects to better educate staff about diversity among the school and what changes can be made to improve inclusivity.
"They looked at all our student opinion survey data and identified a big weakness around student diversity and respect of diversity," said teacher Sarah McKenzie.
"And they created these five minute projects to shift that data in a positive direction with ideas of things to instill in the high school community."
The proposals included developing an anti-racism policy, revamping Harmony Week, more education for staff and students in the LGBTQIA+ space and more promotion of special interest clubs.
Student Harry was part of a team keen to revamp and expand Harmony Week in response to the growing cultural diversity of the student population.
"There has been a general increase throughout the years starting from 2020 in enrolments of people who speak a language other than English and now its the highest it's ever been," he said.
"In 2024 we had 89 new enrolments of people who speak a language other than English. I find it pretty shocking that many people from an Australian heritage are not well educated about other cultures and ethnicities.
"We can expand Harmony Week to educate people outside of those cultures and make everyone comfortable in different environments to create inclusivity ... allow students to step outside their comfort zone and educate them on other cultures and ethnicities."
While Harmony Week is marked at the school, he has proposed a bigger program of events including food, music, guest speakers, cultural clothing, games and more.
Student Emity was part of a project aiming to improve knowledge of events happening around the school, different councils and special interest groups.
"Our project is to respect individual differences and the diversity of our students ... to help educate students and teachers about what's happening around the school and how we can respect each other."
Hamish's pitch to teachers is to help combat the adversity that LGBTQIA+ students may face.
"We have IDAHOBIT day, we celebrate that, but because IDAHOBIT day is only one day and it's the only thing we do in this space so we should have a few smaller things like assemblies and guest speakers who come in and spread it out through the year," Hamish said.
IDAHOBIT Day, on May 17, is the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT).
"I feel like teachers don't have the education they need to be able to deal with these type of situations in the classroom."
Ms McKenzie said staff looked forward to the year 11 professional development sessions and many of the suggestions made and lessons learned in previous years had become part of school practice.
"We love hearing what the students have to say, what their opinions and views are. Their voice helps to guide our teachers and our goals and it's really important and significantly valued by staff," she said.
Previous projects to improve the school including revamping the school's "house system", improving seating in the canteen and introducing diversity captains to the school leadership have all had an impact on how the school runs.