Yea High School Mini-Bus
Hello BPEA members and friends,
We have a heart-warming success story to share with you from John O’Meara, the principal of Yea High School in Victoria.
After seven months of fund-raising they have successfully launched the Yea High School Mini Bus – a resource that is making a real difference to the curriculum options available to the students.
The idea was born out of some Big Picture inspired activities the school ran after the school was heavily affected by the February 7th fires.
Principal John O’Meara says “Our success in obtaining the mini bus has given the students at Yea High School a real sense that they can achieve a goal and that other individuals, schools and organisations stand ready to assist in times of trouble.”
Read on below to hear about their story.
Yea High School Mini Bus
by John O'Meara Principal, Yea High School
As many Big Picture e-news readers may be aware, Yea High School’s catchment zone was heavily impacted by the February 7th fires with one student perishing and 40 families being displaced.
The school was closed for one week and for another four days ran a reduced program due to extreme fire weather.
The school reopened on February 16th and for the first week the whole school group met every morning for half an hour. The activities we ran were akin to the BP ‘pick me ups’. The mini bus idea was born of a ‘pick me up’ activity run by BP director, Viv White.
Students answered a number of quiz questions one of which was ‘What would make Yea High School even better?’ Answers included:
- Could Mr. O’Meara make it rain?
- Can we get some green grass for our oval?
- Improved playground facilities
- A pool
- Shorter classes
- Longer breaks
- A green hockey field
- A mini bus
The mini bus seemed the best option – we did have an immediate need for one and it would add to our curriculum options for the future.
There is no mini bus available in the town of Yea apart from limited access to the 12 seater Murrindindi Shire Community bus. To obtain a larger mini bus requires staff to make two one hour trips to either Seymour or Alexandra to pick up and drop off – hardly the best use of staff time.
A fund was set up during that week of February and many individuals and groups contributed to the fund over the ensuing months. Chief among those contributors were many individuals and schools associated with Big Picture Australia.
In addition, students in key leadership roles within the ‘Young Elected Leaders’ and School Council assisted with the work of promoting this cause.
The key problem was getting to the critical mass of around $40,000 so we could purchase a quality bus and organize suitable shedding. Our fund was close but still around $15,000 short of our target.
Finally, during term three the Children’s Charity ‘Variety’ became aware of our fundraising efforts and agreed to tip in the balance to our fund. So our dream from that ‘pick me up’ activity in February became a reality in September.
Having our own mini bus has increased our capacity to provide a range of vocational training options for students working with our sister school Alexandra SC – also affected by the fires.
The bus has also been used to support the school’s sports program, waterwatch activities, Advance Community Service program, subject based excursion programs and the Boite Choir program.
We now need to work on constructing a shed to house the bus – we are hopeful this work will commence later this month.
It would be true to say our success in obtaining the mini bus has given the students at Yea High School a real sense that they can achieve a goal and that other individuals, schools and organisations stand ready to assist in times of trouble.
The mini bus has been a great addition to the resources available to Yea High School and has added significantly to the curriculum options available to our students.
John O’Meara
Principal
Yea High School