What Parents and Students say

dee and glenSo, what do parents and students think about Yule Brook?

Dee enrolled her son, Glen at Yule Brook. She knew Yule Brook was different. She knew Glen was bored at school. They took up the challenge.

Here is an interview with mother and son.

INTERVIEWER: Dee, can you tell me a little bit about your impressions of Yule Brook?
 
DEE:  I find it fantastic as far as the kids go; they treat them like young mature adults, to the effect that they're getting ready for the work place.  It's not just a…, it's an education environment but it focuses more on getting them ready for what the outside world's going to challenge them with, so, I find it really good.

INTERVIEWER:  Were you anxious at the start?

DEE:  To begin with I was because I thought if it's an experiment type thing, um, what's going to happen when he gets to year 11 and 12, cause they don't do year 11 and 12 here, is he going to be prepared to do that or is it going to be totally different, he's just going to fail, um but the educational concept of it, the actual, what do you call it; the actual work itself is preparing them generally like every other school; it's just the way that they teach them I think, is totally different and it keeps them interested and um focussed and they're doing different things all the time, so…

INTERVIEWER:  Glen's been here 9 months and have you seen Glen develop or I mean what...  

DEE:  Tremendously.  He's confidence has been raised excellent since he's been here at Yule Brook.  Towards the end of year 7 last year we started having a few problems and we thought "oh, my goodness, he's going into high school with this rebellious type thing.  .."

Within a month of being here, it was gone; we had our old Glen back.  So, I think it got too repetitive at primary school, he was bored, he didn't have any interest, didn't want to go to school and then since he's been here, um, just the interest has grown again.  He's actually interested in coming to school, getting excited about coming to school ‑‑ I mean no kid jumps out of their skin to get to into school but he likes it.  It's something he's enjoying so...

INTERVIEWER:  You don't get nervous because it's not the way that you did school?

DEE:  To an extent because I can't help him in certain ways, but I think every parent goes through that with their kids' schooling.  My parents couldn't help with that either so I, like, to try and stay as involved as possible to keep up with whatever they're learning and then he teaches me the new ways that they're learning, so once I've got a grasp of it as well then I can help him.

INTERVIEWER:  And have you been to some of Glen's exhibitions?  

DEE:  Yes.

INTERVIEWER:  What do you think about that process?

DEE:  They are just fantastic.  They are what teaches them a lot of their skills in speech and how to show what they've been doing and demonstrations and stuff, whereas if they're going into the workplace they're going to have to do things like that anyway.  So it builds up their confidence level and it gives me an idea to show where he's at in progress with his work, so, and it's a good way for me to keep in contact with the school and vice versa to know what level he's at; know if there's any problems or, which I mean the school's fantastic, they ring if there's any problems, they ring if he's absent, the communication lines are just fantastic, so…

INTERVIEWER:  What’s your advice to other parents who would might have the opportunity to send their kids to a school like this?

DEE:  Do it.  Honestly, um, especially with a boy, because they get to chose certain subjects like for their exhibition, like Glen loves football; he's an Essendon Bombers fan; one of his exhibitions was on that and he loved it, absolutely loved it, whereas the normal tedious "come to school, do your work, go home "‑‑ kids can't learn like that, if you give a child an interest that they are interested in, you find out what they're interested in and get them to focus their education on that, they're going to want to learn.  They're not going to get up every morning thinking "oh, great, here we go".  They're going to get up thinking "cool, I get to do what I enjoy”, at the same time as learning ".    And I don't even think they realise they are learning at the same time.  So, um, to any parent that would like to send their child to a Big Picture school, do it, its, especially for boys or boys that um are at that age at 12 that are losing interest and getting tedious and repetitive, do it."  

INTERVIEWER:  And Glen, what's your impressions of being at Yule brook College?  

GLEN:   It's a pretty good school, with its education: Because they let us pick what we want to learn about and I always pick footy, so I've learnt a lot about it now.  

We’re learning with numbers so, like,  find out how much premierships they've won, like for Essendon it would be 16, like how much goals they have kicked so, the number of goals they have kicked?

INTERVIEWER: So what would you say to other kids who are thinking about coming to a big picture school?  

GLEN:   It's their choice but it's a very good school to learn at, it's a good education but you can also have fun as well and the teachers here in year 8 are very nice too.  

INTERVIEWER: And the exhibitions, was that nerve- wracking?

GLEN:   Yes my first one was, I was like all shaken up…. it's gotten better.

DEE:  You did very well..

INTERVIEWER:  Why do you think it's a good thing to do?

GLEN:  Because it teaches you how to stand up in front of people and like talk for a long time about stuff that you like and what people probably don't know much about and they'll find out about it too.  

-End of Interview-