Dear colleagues,

Welcome back to Term 4. Please continue to pray for David and Elise Smith and their family and the school communities at St. Mary’s Armidale and St. Nicholas’s Tamworth.

By now, many of you would be aware of the tragedy that occurred on Friday afternoon, resulting in the death of David Smith's 3 children and their grandfather when the plane they were travelling in crashed just outside of Canberra on transit to Armidale. David Smith is the Diocesan Financial Administrator and a member of the Armidale Catholic Schools Board. David's children recently changed schools from St Nicholas in Tamworth to St. Mary's in Armidale. This is a tragedy beyond my comprehension as we pray for David, his wife Elise and their surviving two children. We keep the beautiful children Raphael, Evita and Philomena, and their grandfather Peter (Elise's father) in our prayers. We also acknowledge the school communities of St. Mary's and St. Nicholas. These communities will be supported by the CSO and Centacare. In my conversations with Belinda Burton, John Clery and Chris Shepheard (CEO of Centacare) I have been humbled by their capacity to respond to such difficult circumstances. We will work towards identifying what material and spiritual support the CSO team can provide to David and his family at this tragic time.

At this unbelievably sad time, we pray:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

The Boards of the Reserve Bank of Australia and Qantas not only recently appointed female CEOs they also appointed proven leaders from within their own organisations. The latest survey (2022) by S&P said ” Internal appointments continue to be the majority. S&P 500 boards continue to favour internal candidates when selecting a new CEO, with internal promotions at 82 percent of all transitions in 2022, the highest proportion since 2016. Even through the pandemic years, this 80/20 split has held remarkably steady. Eighteen percent of new CEOs were external appointments”. (Downloaded from:https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/2022-ceo-transitions)

I am thrilled that we have followed the trend across the country. I am excited that the Armidale Catholic Schools Board have chosen our new Director of Schools from within the organisation and in particular from within the current talented CSO Leadership Team. It confirms our efforts to ‘grow our own’ leaders are working.

The announcements yesterday of the new Director of Schools (Regina Menz) and Principal of St. Edwards Primary School, South Tamworth (Alison Hatton), are exciting developments for our system of schools in the Diocese of Armidale for many reasons. We can be proud of the fact that we are developing leaders from within the school system who are capable of taking both the system and the schools to the next level. We have successfully established strong educational, human resource and financial foundations that have enabled improvements in student faith and learning outcomes. Regina and Alison are leaders who have the ability and opportunity to be innovative against the background of maintaining these foundations. They understand and are committed to the vision and mission of our professional learning community in a Catholic context.

My sincere congratulations to both Regina and Alison on their respective appointments. They are both system leaders who will continue to work hard for equity for students in regional, rural and remote settings so the students can be ‘literate and numerate students for a hope-filled future’ based on the Catholic principles and values of quality Catholic education.

Link to Announcement of the new Director of Schools

Monsignor Wilkes, Regina Menz, Chris Smyth and Peter Maher

Link to the announcement of the new Principal at St. Edwards

Chris Smyth and Alison Hatton

Best wishes for a great Term 4,

Chris Smyth

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