Hedland now an education destination

Hedland parents are re-enrolling their kids in local schools in record numbers as huge public and private sector investment shortens the education divide between Perth and the Pilbara.

Hedland Senior High principal John Burke, who on Friday unveiled the school’s $11 million renovation alongside Education Minister Peter Collier and BHP Billiton Iron Ore boss Jimmy Wilson, said attitudes toward a Pilbara education were changing.

He said the old adage that parents waited until their kids reached middle school before sending them off to Perth had evaporated.

“In 2009, 28 per cent of kids came here in Year 8 and stayed until Year 12, that’s now 59 per cent,” Mr Burke said.

The Hedland Senior High refurbishment delivers 10 additional classrooms, including two new IT labs, and a new administration block.

Mr Burke said an ongoing funding partnership between BHP and the State Government meant the school’s facilities and personnel no longer lagged behind those in the metro area.

“Every year over $250,000 comes from the (BHP) partnership and that enables us to run programs to support kids in their classes, to encourage staff to stay for longer and to attract vibrant new staff,” he said. “Those partnerships can’t be understated. I talk to my colleagues in the South West often (and) we’re in a privileged position to be well resourced to do our job better.”

Life-long Hedland resident Sharon Ramirez-Smith sent her 14-year-old triplets to Perth’s Swan Christian College in 2011 for “schooling reasons”. But when husband Robert returned to Port Hedland for work this year the family had no hesitation bringing the kids back.

“When I was growing up…it was very different, there is more opportunity now, there are heaps more programs, we just never had that,” Mrs Ramirez-Smith said.

“At all levels, from a political level right down to a grass root level, it is different.”

Mr Ramirez-Smith said the change in Hedland Senior High’s reputation, fuelled by ranking first on a 2012 table measuring schools’ achievements in vocational education and training and significant growth in graduation rates, had caused many parents to reconsider their child’s education pathway.

“A lot of people in the Pilbara make a lot of money and can afford to send their kids to private school, but I think now they’re taking up other options and staying in town,” he said.

Mr Collier announced the State Government had renewed its $3.6 million partnership with BHP to continue investing in education and training initiatives at Hedland and Newman senior high schools.

The minister said the partnership would also support opportunities for Aboriginal students through the Follow the Dream program which provides support for aspiring university students.