What a great school!

With special guest:

• Mark Morrison OAM
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Macleay Vocational College (MVC) caters for students from Year 9 to Year 12 (14 years of age onwards) who have fallen out of mainstream education for a variety of reasons. The Principal of MVC clearly has to have special qualities in order to relate to these students. Our guest today is Mark Morrison who has built up an incredible track record in that role over the last nine years. He has students gaining their Higher School Certificates, and sometimes they are the first in their families to do so. But when the students arrive at MVC their good qualities are often not evident in their personal histories and sometimes their current circumstances are troubling too. Against this background Mark brings an enlightened and flexible approach that allows the students to produce their best.

We ask Mark about the school and what makes it different.

Mark is sensitive to cultural issues for his students the majority of whom are Aboriginal. So that translates to a high proportion of Aboriginal staff members. It means having the local Elders do language classes. It means going on camps where the students can learn traditional crafts like making boomerangs, woomeras and shields.

Some of Mark’s students have never been outside the local area. So Mark is big on excursions where students have been to Sydney, sat in Parliament House and met Members of Parliament. And there are the little things. Mark tells us about one of his teenage students who in her trip to Sydney just wanted to meet Santa Claus.

There are particular discipline demands. All High School teachers are aware of the difficulties in dealing with a whole group of young people still finding themselves. Mark and his teachers are more aware of the difficulties than most. We hear how sometimes a student will erupt either in the classroom or after school. If a student has to leave a classroom there is a safety net of a “walking around” teacher who can check in with that student investigate the problem and hopefully resolve it, sometimes with Mark’s help or others. In this way the student is likely to go back to the classroom instead of being sent to an uncertain home environment.

We get to interview inspirational people on this program. Mark Morrison and his cohort at Macleay Vocational College definitely fit that description.

Mark Morrison OAM

Mark Morrison was the Principal at Macleay Vocational College until his retirement in 2020. Prior to this appointment Mark was a Physics teacher at a Catholic High School but for the last 9 years he has been making a difference in the lives of many young people who find their way to his school in Kempsey on the mid North Coast of NSW. Mark featured in a 2019 episode of Australian Story on ABC TV and has previously been a coach and recruitment officer at the elite level in Rugby League. In 2016 Mark was awarded the title of Citizen of the Year in Kempsey. Listen to this show and you will find out what makes Mark a special person and an inspiration to his school and the wider community.

Song selection: Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac

Note: This program is an encore presentation of the one aired on 12 March 2020.

Podcast (mp3)