It was a couple YGM’s ago when Mr Macourt spoke and mentioned one thing that really got me thinking. He said that doing a tour of the college allowed students to realise all the good things about the school. Having done a college tour myself, I can say that I completely agree.  

Every Wednesday when I log onto WE ARE I see many new articles of varying genres, yet there is one constant type of article that I am sure to see. A complaint. In today’s society, we place a heavy focus on improvement, constantly trying to better ourselves and our lifestyle. Unfortunately, in our quest for improvement, we’re constantly finding flaws in everything and often find ourselves in the mindset of thinking “there is no use appreciating the things we do right if we have things we are doing wrong that needs fixing”. I find that this mindset is very present in our school community evident in some of the WE ARE articles. There is often an article about something that the school is doing wrong, like “We Are Bus-less” or “The Gender of Uniform”. To make it abundantly clear, I am by no means mocking or belittling these articles or any similar ones, they almost always provide insightful and true commentary that is genuinely helpful, yet I am simply stating that they take a predominantly negative stance towards the school. These types of articles are the predominant articles that you may find on the ‘Opinions’ page, so I decided to take a moment to point out a few of the things that the school does well. 

In doing the college tour and in thinking about what to write for this article, I realised that William Clarke has a lot of features that students generally take for granted. For example, Years 9 and 10 are given over 40 electives to choose from; unless I am sorely mistaken, not many other schools provide that variety. Not only that but with the Branwhite building we are given an optimal place to learn in state-of-the-art classrooms and specialised science labs and tech rooms with every tool imaginable – including 3D printers. The Branwhite Centre also comes with a fully functional kitchen for food tech classes and a fully equipped photography studio.  

 Not only do we have exceptional facilities, but William Clarke also has an abundance of supportive staff. Say what you will about the William Clarke teachers – most, if not all of them legitimately want to help students. Not only that but the school offers us so many opportunities. It seems like every week Mrs Greenwood puts a new connect post out for year 10’s providing some kind of career-based opportunity for us. On a different note, William Clarke lets the students have so much control over what happens in the school, including WE ARE as a completely student-run initiative and giving students the opportunity to start lunchtime groups (with the permission of a teacher of course), last time I checked, not many schools endorsed. 

Overall, I certainly consider myself lucky to go to William Clarke, all things considered. While there are definitely many things that the school can improve on, I have to say that our school is doing most of the important things right.