He’s been punched ‘once or twice’. But this principal is still rolling

What would you do if you had a chance to create your own school from the ground up?

Would you build one campus, or dot five of them around the neighbourhood; in a heritage-listed naval drill hall, on a historic pier, and in a New York-style loft?

Albert Park College principal Steven Cook at the Village Wine Bar. Credit:Penny Stephens

How would you convince the area’s choosy parents to enrol their children? With a focus on excellence in maths and science, or by giving pride of place to the arts?

Not many public school principals get to make such choices, but then not many are like Steven Cook: long-haired, long-distance sailing enthusiast with a love of literature, and founder of Albert Park College, one of Melbourne’s exemplar state schools.

Cook and I meet for lunch at the Village Wine Bar on Dundas Place, in the heart of Albert Park (naturally). He’s friendly with the owners, brothers Tony and Pete Giannakis, both of whom sent their children to his school.

It’s a perfect early autumn day, and we’ve been seated at a table by the window. It isn’t long before a class of APC students walk past, looking sharp and serious in their striped blazers.

APC’s uniform policy is strict. Unless it’s forecast to hit 30 degrees, those blazers must be worn at all times while students travel to and from school.

It’s a policy ripped right out of the private school playbook. But it has a historical context.

Albert Park’s story is one shared by several inner Melbourne suburbs: a working-class and migrant suburb that gentrified rapidly. And when it did so, it left its high school behind.

The old Albert Park College closed in 2006, having been spurned by its community: just 6 per cent of local children went there. Its brutalist admin building and run-down light-timber classrooms were razed soon afterwards.

The old Albert Park College in 2005.Credit:Eamon Gallagher

When the new APC opened in 2011, most local children were enrolled in private schools. To succeed, it had to take them on, toe to toe.

Thirteen years later, it has 1600 students and a restricted school zone. In 2021, it was named Australian school of the year.

“I think the evidence here is that when you put a quality public school in the community, people will come to it, as long as you get the fundamentals right,” Cook says.

These days, visitors from around Victoria and even interstate tour his college, seeking tips on how to start a successful school, or maybe just in hope that a bit of the magic will rub off.

In COVID times Cook wrote a book, From the Ground Up, to be published next week by Black Inc. It is both a history of the college and a primer on what it takes to create a successful state school.

Steven Cook outside the rebuilt Albert Park College in 2011.Credit:Simon Schluter

The most fundamental step is to bring the community with you, he says.

Tony Giannakis arrives with our starter: a plate of freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters, with a dill and cucumber vinaigrette. They are tiny and cling tightly to the shell, requiring heavy prising with a fork.

There wasn’t a lot of confidence in Cook’s vision for the reborn Albert Park College when he first pitched the school to locals, Giannakis says. “My initial thought was, this bloke can say whatever he likes, but my experience might not reflect your vision.”

Giannakis went to Albert Park College in the 1970s, when it was a lot less well-to-do than it is today.

“There was an element of survival in the area; you had to be on your guard walking the streets.”

The old college mainly taught Greek students and Anglo kids from public housing. Parents worked on the wharves or in factories.

“I could not imagine being a teacher in that environment with so many troubled kids,” Giannakis says.

He put his children on waiting lists at Melbourne Girls’ Grammar and St Michael’s Grammar, hopeful they’d receive better educations than he did, but Cook gradually won him over.

“When the clock turned around and it was time for my kids, I think it was no hesitation to send them to APC.”

Cook opts for the entree special: plump and colourful fresh figs with prosciutto, on a bed of whipped ricotta with pistachios and a balsamic reduction.

Fresh figs with sliced prosciutto on a bed of whipped ricotta, pistachios and a balsamic reduction.Credit:Penny Stephens

I go for the kingfish crudo in buttermilk, each raw sliver layered with a slice of pickled apple and a cluster of tiny black caviar.

We wash it down with glasses of white wine: he a chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula, me a Barossa Valley roussanne. It feels more than a little luxe for a Tuesday lunch.

Cook credits Victoria’s public school system with making him what he is today.

He grew up in the Latrobe Valley, just two hours’ drive and a world away from Albert Park. His family lived in public housing in Morwell. His father was a farmhand and concreter.

He recalls his own school days fondly, though it was an experience his current students would find bizarre: warm bottled milk with a head of thick cream for every child, marbles and yo-yos at playtime, the strap, even segregated play areas for boys and girls at Morwell High School, which was both conservative and radical.

The principal mandated that all students learn Esperanto, and oversaw a four-day week to manage student overcrowding. The school also nurtured Cook’s love of books.

“Coming out of my background – it was an absolutely fine background – but I didn’t have the stimulus of ideas and literature, and that’s what school gave me.

“It’s probably one of the reasons I’m passionate about public education. It’s given me such a great career and such great opportunities across my life.”

His career as a principal began on the other side of Port Phillip Bay, in Williamstown. He made some early mistakes, one of which was corrected by the local MP, Victorian premier Joan Kirner.

He had put up a forbidding sign, warning off trespassers and ordering all visitors to report directly to the office. Kirner walked in, clutching the sign.

“She came into my office and said, ‘This is a public school and has to be open to everyone. Do not ever put a sign up like that again.’ It was pretty full-on, but it was a fantastic message.”

Albert Park College has no fences. Its courtyard and basketball/netball courts are open to all, at least outside of school hours.

Our mains arrive. Cook has gone for the special again. It’s a duck ragu in pappardelle, with orange, cinnamon and tomatoes through it and shaved Parmesan on top.

I stick with the standard menu. Chargrilled swordfish, on a bed of chickpeas and roasted peppers, and swimming in a tart salmoriglio (lemon juice, water and olive oil) sauce, is as meaty as a steak.

The chargrilled swordfish at Village Wine Bar.Credit:Penny Stephens

Cook loves his job, but in his book he details two big changes in his time as a principal that have made it more difficult: education authorities have imposed a more top-down approach to running schools; and there are more recalcitrant parents who believe their children can do no wrong and willingly undermine school discipline.

Cook demurs when invited to elaborate on problem parents, stating that most are very supportive, though he admits he has been punched “once or twice”. “Occasionally, when you are dealing with thousands of people, you are going to be put at risk,” he says.

Cook was given the freedom to take calculated risks when he opened APC, and his community has reaped the rewards. But would he be given such latitude today?

“There is less trust and a lack of autonomy, so that you can’t shape a school’s destiny like you could in the past.”

Nowhere has this shift been more corrosive to a principal’s authority than when it comes to the deeply difficult decision to expel a student, he argues.

Principals have virtually lost the power to expel a student, no matter how dangerous or disruptive to others, since students and parents were given increased avenues to appeal five years ago.

He believes it is a situation where everyone loses. “No one expels a kid lightly and we’d all prefer not to, but when you reach that fundamental point and if it doesn’t succeed, it undermines your authority. And then you can easily lose control of the school.”

Steven Cook is a panellist at The Age Schools Summit, on Thursday, March 23.

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