Ballajura Community College, which commenced operations in 1995, has grown from an initial enrolment of 650 students to an enrolment for 2008 of 1940 students (years 7 - 12). It is the largest school in Western Australia and possibly Australia as well. It is a school which is innovative in both structure and in operation. The college welcomes the community to contribute as active partners in its educational, sporting, cultural and recreational programs.
Physical Structure
The college is comprised of two campuses, delivering comprehensive education programs in two distinct phases. These are a Middle School campus for Years 7 to 9 and the Senior Campus meeting the needs of students from Years 10 to 12. The campuses are separated by the school oval and other sporting facilities. The school buildings were planned over a number of stages to deal with an expected peak enrolment of approximately 2000 students. Some of the facilities are shared between the two campuses. These include the Technology block, gymnasium, Drama room and Dance studio as well as some specialist facilities in the Visual Arts block such as the ceramics studio. Stage IV of the building program, which was finalised during 2001, saw the opening of a Performing Arts Centre, an extension to the gymnasium, the Materials Technology Centre and the refurbishment of the temporary Drama room and the Tiered Learning Area. These facilities have added value to the school's programs.
College Ethos
The design of the college, physically and philosophically, addresses the special needs of young adolescents and is at the cutting edge of educational reform in Western Australia. Changing trends in employment, education and training have indicated the need for a more responsive curriculum. In order to be successful, students need to be self managed, proactive in their own learning and able to work in various groups. The traditional role of the teacher as expert needs to change to that of a facilitator within a multi-disciplinary team to deliver the curriculum.In response to this, Ballajura Community College has developed an ethos that requires teachers to demonstrate a commitment to an outcomes-based approach as the basis for the middle schooling curriculum delivery. This is built around an integrated, cross curricula approach that aims to develop a core of essential learning outcomes rather than curriculum content knowledge. It is intended that our students will be able to research, produce, organise, collaborate and take on leaders
Creating Our Future Together The college’s purpose is to provide a positive, caring and supportive environment that promotes life long learning and the Ballajura Community College’s values of compassion, inspiration, enterprise and achievement through the pursuit of personal excellence. Vision Statement
Ballajura Community College is an investment in the Western Australian community’s future. As educational explorers, pioneers and innovators, staff, in partnership with the community, boldly challenge and expand frontiers in learning and teaching to inspire and serve the needs of our students.
Learning and teaching excellence are the keys to BCC’s achievements. Educational Excellence is achieved at Ballajura Community College by involving the community in our endeavours to inspire students, to create learning opportunities for them, and to enlighten inquisitive minds. Our greatest strengths are our staff and the college community. We aggressively recruit a team of highly qualified staff to the college. We empower our staff, encourage and reward creativity, initiative and teamwork. We provide professional learning opportunities and value their individual and collective experience. We set high standards for leadership and our leaders lead by example. Each of us makes unique contributions to BCC’s success, and we constantly seek ways to improve on these successes.
We preserve the community’s confidence and trust by ensuring that our missions are consistent with informed educational learning and teaching practice, carefully conceived, and well executed. We deliver what we promise and we readily accept our accountability for our performance. We are bold but prudent in confronting challenges and accepting risks. We work with integrity and are dedicated to fulfilling our vision, creating and maintaining Ballajura Community College as a place of learning excellence.
Ballajura Community College is dedicated to compassion, inspiration, enterprise and achievement.
Ethos We will create the future together by:
1.Creating and maintaining a flexible, caring and supportive learning environment through whole college collaboration.
2.Ensuring decision making processes involve students, staff, parents and community.
3.Practising the principles of learning, teaching and assessment.
4.Encouraging students to become successful learners.
5.Adopting an integrated student-centred approach to learning and teaching.
6.Having a responsible and accountable college community.
7.Having a healthy and safe environment.
8.The college is part of the community; and the community is part of the college.
This is the environment we want to have to enable the vision of Ballajura Community College through its purpose to be achieved.
