[00:00:08] Kylie Speer:
Hello and welcome to The Educator TV. I’m Kylie Speer and joining me today is Timothy Barraud, Principal at Balmoral State High School. Balmoral State High School has been named as one of the winners of The Educator 5 Star Innovative Schools for 2025. Welcome to you, Timothy. Huge congratulations and thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:00:33] Timothy Barraud:
Thank you so much for having me. It’s just such an honor to be here. But more importantly, it’s so wonderful to be acknowledged for this award. So thank you.
[00:00:44] Kylie Speer:
Well, firstly, Timothy, what does this recognition mean to Balmoral State High School? And how does it validate your commitment to shaping learners who are prepared, resilient and capable of achieving their full potential?
[00:01:00] Timothy Barraud:
This award is… truly remarkable and I guess it really goes to the notion of how we’re trying to transform the student experience here at Balmoral State High School. I’m so excited for this award and not only for to be receiving it on behalf of my community but also to highlight the work that our incredible staff are doing every single day in classrooms to our students as being the forefront. They give me feedback, guidance and more importantly they are part of the decision making process here at Balmoral. We’ve invested heavy in our students to make sure that leadership isn’t necessarily a tokenistic gesture, but rather a key driver of how we can transform the learning experience here at Balmoral State High School. And for us, it’s around how we work with our learning partners, the range and depth of learning partners to make sure that we’re truly leading transformation and making sure that our students are globally competent citizens ready for any future that they have.
[00:01:54] Kylie Speer:
Enabling student voice and agency is central to your school’s philosophy. Can you describe the specific structures, practices or opportunities you’ve implemented that empower students to have genuine ownership of their learning and make meaningful decisions about their educational journey?
[00:02:16] Timothy Barraud:
Yeah, so student agency isn’t an add-on at Balmoral, but really it’s the architecture of our school. It’s about us providing a cohesive ecosystem around the structures where students are at the center of our work. They’re decision makers. They’re not passive participants, but rather real contributors to the life and the experience here at Balmoral State High School. Learner agency impact is really what we’re on about and making sure that faculties, heads of department and me as a principal have agency. But more importantly, we’re affording that to our students as part of the ecosystem and designs. Our work around authentic mixed method assessment with one of our learning partners, A Learner First, has really enabled students to have a greater experience in terms of providing evidence of their assessment and learning. We talk a lot about authentic mixed methods assessment where we’re able to, I guess, normalise that students are able to demonstrate assessment in multiple ways and forms. And there’s not one right answer, but rather multiple forms. And we’re wanting students to really highlight what they can do and what they can achieve, rather than having one particular assessment instrument that they have to do. Student leadership is another real key element of our school. And so I have the wonderful privilege of working really closely with our student leaders, both in junior and senior, listening to them and asking for guidance and feedback. They’re part of the decision-making process. And more importantly, they actually provide us with really clear insights and feedback around what we can do to improve our educational ecosystem here at Balmoral. I’ve worked really passionately with my student leaders across a range of time the last two years here where their insights have been really critical to help support and arm us with the next lift across our transformational journey. Students are part of the decision making process here and so they help guide and support the strategic direction of our school whether it’s from what looks like in the classroom practice to our teams initiatives and how we do work in that space. That’s been really critical for us in terms of making sure that students have voice, but more importantly, are part of the decision making process here at Balmoral.
[00:04:39] Kylie Speer:
Transforming student engagement through meta-language requires deliberate practice. How do you explicitly teach students to think and talk about their own learning, resilience and growth mindset and what difference has this metacognitive approach made in how students engage with challenges?
[00:05:01] Timothy Barraud:
It’s been truly transformational, I’ll say that. So we’ve been working with Dr Amy Berry for the past two years now, and that’s about really changing the landscape of engagement in our school. I really want my students to have the understanding, the knowledge, and the persistence when it comes to being okay to learn differently in a different classroom. We want them to have the language, but we also want our staff members, our teachers, including me, to give students feedback progressively around their level of engagement. So how it works in practicality is the fact that students are given feedback around the type of task. So, right, it’s participating, driving and investing. We’ve also gone one step further and we’ve created a new level, which is innovating, which is part of our school values. And we also know that it takes time, energy, but also you can’t innovate all the time. So that’s why we’ve really use an engagement accelerator to highlight to students that learning is on a continuum and so you might — we expect you to simply participate in lessons but more importantly you can also go up levels and you can have your own agency and learning by your own level of output that you do in a lesson every single day. We want students to be empowered to make sure that they can use this language for their own learning, not only in year seven, but the maturity of that as it continues to year 10, 11 and 12, and what that means for them as they move on post-school. Learning and engagement is very much individual as what you put into education. Learning isn’t done to you, but rather you’re an active participant in that process. So providing students with that metacognitive language is key for us to make sure that we can really ensure that our students are resilient, adaptive and critical learners for a global future.
[00:07:00] Kylie Speer:
You emphasize authentic learning partnerships to enable real-world problem solving. Could you walk us through a specific example of how collaborations with your local community and external partners have created genuine opportunities for students to tackle complex problems and develop critical thinking and creativity in authentic contexts?
[00:07:24] Timothy Barraud:
Yes. So I’m really thankful for our partnership with Boeing Defence Australia. Very exciting. And so we’ve had a partnership with Boeing Defence now for 22 years. And we have a Boeing Academy, which is truly remarkable, where we work directly with our Boeing partner and they give us a real authentic problem that’s relevant for their industry. And so our students from year eight to 12 are part of the decision-making where they’re actually providing with authentic solutions. Our students then go to Boeing Defence and present to industry, and they basically reference what it means and what they’ve done. We’ve actually had now an alumni come back in and work every single week with our students to give them the critical insights, the industry knowledge, and the detail around it. Obviously, some information is classified, but our students still get a kick out of the notion of them actually authentically solving issues. So much so that the MQ-28 aircraft is that. There’s a hangar in Toowoomba where our students actually had to co-design their outputs and the industry standards for that, which is truly remarkable. That’s just one. We’ve got so many others and more and more work to be done. I think where it comes to, for us, really leaning into industry and making sure that our students have authentic opportunities to really demonstrate what it means for them, but more importantly to have that industry connections so they can see what it’s like to be in industry and what they could contribute if they put themselves and their mindsets to the future.
[00:09:09] Kylie Speer:
Absolutely amazing. And finally, Timothy, as a recog nized innovator, how are you delivering on your commitment to innovate for impact at Balmoral? What drives your continuous pursuit of new approaches and what impact do you hope your innovations will have on students’ capacity to contribute meaningfully to society and address the challenges of tomorrow?
[00:09:35] Timothy Barraud:
Yeah, I really want my students to be global, competent citizens. And so for me, having the values of agency, belonging, innovation really underpin all the work that we do every single day here at Balmoral. From co-learning to partners in terms of and making sure that we’re connecting authentically with our community — innovation isn’t necessarily, it’s not a brand but rather it’s a way of working here. I’m truly inspired by the people I work with, but more importantly, the students I get to connect with every single day. They’re decision makers and they work with me as a learning partner to make sure that they can contribute to our school in a different way. We’re now, it’s so wonderful to be recognized for this 5-Star Innovative Award. And I know that this is just the start of our journey because of the fact that we can do so much more when we work together alongside students, parents, and obviously our community. Balmoral is truly remarkable. We’re a medium-sized school, but it’s wonderful to get our name out there to highlight that we’re leading transformation and impact for a different experience for students. And for our students, two years in now to my principalship here at Balmoral, they’ve referenced with me that the school culture is very different. And it’s one of aspiration and it’s one of transformation. And so that’s basically how we’re working to really authentically connect and support and to make sure our students are loved and adored by everyone.
[00:11:04] Kylie Speer:
So exciting. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Timothy, and congratulations once again on the incredible year Balmoral State High School has had.
[00:11:15] Timothy Barraud:
Thank you so much. It’s a wonderful privilege and pleasure to be here. And thanks again. Look, I look forward to sharing other updates as we continue to transform a wonderful state education system.
[00:11:27] Kylie Speer:
And thank you, of course, to our viewers for watching the latest episode of The Educator TV. We look forward to seeing you again soon.