Principal's Report

Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.

WB Yeats (1865-1939)

What a momentous fortnight for education in the New England area and in Armidale specifically. By now I'm sure all in our community have heard the announcement of the impending merger of Armidale High School and Duval High School.  I don't intend spending a great deal of time on this topic but there are some things that need to be said to correct some misleading statements that appeared in the local media.

Firstly, what is proposed is not a 'Super School'. Yes, it will be large when it meets its full capacity of 1500 students and 150 odd staff but a 'Super School' is somewhat larger - 2000+ students. Nonetheless, in the context of Armidale and the surrounding area the new school will be big.

Secondly, whilst the school will have some amazing facilities its focus will not be on the Performing Arts alone - it will be a fully comprehensive coeducational facility delivering quality secondary education in state of the art facilities across the board.

The timeline for the new school is ambitous but from my perspective that is the point of what we do - to dream big and have a vision. The new school whilst different is to similar models either underway or proposed in other areas of the state e.g. Griffith and Ballina. Whilst I haven't had it confirmed I would anticipate that the recruitment process for the new school principal would take place in readiness for next year. 2018 has been announced as the planning year; in 2019 all students and staff of the new school will be based at the current Duval High School site and demolition/construction of the new school will commence at the old Armidale High School site. I guess that is the point where things become ambitious in real terms - anyone who has ever built a house knows the sorts of delays that can be encountered and it would be great to think that the new school was fully operational on its new site for the beginning of the 2020 school year but that remains to be seen.

In the end the quality of the education received in a school comes down to the willingness of students to learn and the capacity of teachers to help them - this is equally true of existing schools and bright, shiny new ones. It should be apparent that given the chance I would always ask that every student had an opportunity to learn in the best of environments. It is why we have spent so much time and energy in improving our facilities and resources over the past three years and why we will continue to do so. I had confirmed on Monday that our planned upgrade of the Science labs is projected for the 2017-2018 financial year so I am hopeful on progress in that area by the end of the year.

In the last week our school was one of 10 across the state selected to be part of Phase 2 of the Department of Education's Schools of the Future program. We were selected in 2016 to be part of the pilot program and now we will take on a role in leading other schools to develop future focussed programs. In this sense, as a school, we are well placed in our local education environment as a leader in innovation and progressive solutions. 

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Amy Hobbs to our staff as Head of Administration and Organisation. Amy comes to us from Walcha Central School where she is currently Head of Mathematics. Amy will join our staff in Week 6, Term 4 when we rollover into our new school year; Amy is currently playing an integral role at Walcha Central School in preparing the school for their first rollover as the decision has been made to introduce the Academy model at Walcha at the end of this year - remember of course that Uralla Central School made this decision in 2014.

Duval High School holds a Careers Festival every two years and this year it will be held on Wednesday 26 July. It is my intention to investigate organising a bus to take interested parents and students to Duval High School for the event - there would be no cost and we will endeavour to send a note home prior to the end of term to collect further information about the feasibility of this event.

Enjoy the winter break, cherish your children.

Have a great fortnight.