Damien Burke wanted to be a pilot until he realised that he had a fear of flying.
Instead, he has devoted his career to helping others reach new heights.
Beaudesert State High School’s newest Principal is on a mission to ensure no student slips through the cracks under his watch.
New era for Beaudesert High
What drew Principal Damien Burke to Beaudesert State High School was a desire to make a difference where he saw a need.
“I’ve got an absolute belief that every child deserves a chance and can do well. One of the things driving me was I saw what happened here in the community last year and I felt like I had something to offer this community, the kids who come to this school,” he said.
“It comes from that moral purpose that every child needs someone who cares for them, and every school should be able to deliver on that and create that safe space for students to be able to go to.”
A strong start
At day 8 of the 2024 school year, Beaudesert High had 1268 students.
Term One achievement data, according to Mr Burke, shows those students have surpassed the A to C target of 80 per cent and they are only a few per cent below their A to B target.
He attributes that win to the students rather than to his leadership, but it is clear he is proud of the achievement.
“The data shows the students have started really strong – I’m not going to say it’s my biggest achievement, but the students have worked hard,” he said.
“I talked to them at the start of the year about leaving the uniform in a better place than you found it and talking to teachers and wanting to engage students and have that real focus on our core business of teaching and learning at the school.
“We’ve returned some of the best results we’ve had in a number of years and some of our best results ever.”
Ensuring student wellbeing
Mr Burke, who started his career as a history, mathematics and information technology teacher in 2003, loves numbers and data.
The accomplished educator has held leadership positions at several large schools across the Gold Coast, taught in the UK and helped deliver the Flying Start Project introducing year 7 to high school across the Southeast region, including in Beaudesert.
That leadership background underpins his passion for taking a strategic approach to managing student wellbeing and ensuring no student slips through the cracks.
“It’s having really tight processes around monitoring how students are progressing. We have support team meetings fortnightly where we talk about students across every year level, flag any students we’re concerned about,” he said.
People come first
Leading about 150 staff, including five deputies, and a large cohort of students is a big job, but Mr Burke has not forgotten his roots in teaching.
“My first day in the classroom as a prac teacher was at Maroochydore State School with year five students and I had to show them how to cut out a turtle, but that was enough to fall in love with the job straight away,” he said.
“It’s nice to see students picking up something you’ve shown them how to do and realising that influence you can have on young people.”
