Champion Bay Senior High School (previously John Willcock College) is a comprehensive

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

middle

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compar ...

, located in Karloo, a suburb of

Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

, a regional centre north west of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia.

Overview

The school was established in 1975 as a high school catering for students from Year 8 to Year 10. In 1983 the first cohort of Year 11 students occurred and the school became John Willcock Senior High School. The school was amalgamated with

Geraldton Senior College Geraldton Senior High School is a Comprehensive education, comprehensive Public school (government funded), public Mixed-sex education, co-educational Secondary education#Australia, high day school, located in Geraldton, Western Australia, Gera ...

in 1997 and was known as the Geraldton Secondary College (Highbury Campus). By 2003 the name was changed again to John Willcock College and the school catered for students from Year 8 to 9 with most students continuing onto the senior college upon graduating. In 2019 the school was renamed and commenced the process of becoming a full six-year high school, with the addition of a new year group each year for the next three years. The school was named after

John Willcock John Collings Willcock (9 August 1879 – 7 June 1956) was the 15th Premier of Western Australia, serving from 1936 until 1945. He was a member of the Australian Labor Party. Early life John Willcock was born at Frogmoor (now Frogmore), New So ...

, the 15th

premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive bra ...

. Enrolments at the school The school was closed temporarily in 2008 after being swamped following heavy rain. Several classrooms were damaged. Later the same year

vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...

s caused over $15,000 worth of damage to the school. Three teenage boys smashed about 40 windows then flooded many rooms using a

fire hose A fire hose (or firehose) is a high-pressure hose that carries water or other fire retardant (such as foam) to a fire to extinguish it. Outdoors, it attaches either to a fire engine, fire hydrant, or a portable fire pump. Indoors, it can perma ...

. Local police apprehended them at the site. In 2010 the school was the subject of intense media scrutiny following the broadcast of violent video footage of students at the school attacking each other. The unprovoked students had filmed

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

fights with other unsuspecting students then circulating the images on their

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s. The principal, Julie Campbell, was shocked at the footage which involved only a small number of female students. Parents were contacted saying that the culprits would be suspended and that the college had made huge strides in managing behavior. A

bushfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...

was started by a 12-year-old student behind the college in 2013 that eventually burned out of bushland that threatened properties in Karloo.

References

External links

* http://www.championbayshs.wa.edu.au/ {{Public high schools in Western Australia, state=collapsed Public high schools in Western Australia 1975 establishments in Australia Educational institutions established in 1975 Geraldton

Overview

See also

References

External links