It seems to be beginning to look a lot like Christmas already. Term 4 is zooming past with lots of fantastic learning in and out of the classroom. The start of term saw me step into the principal role permanently and has allowed for me to start on the journey of ensuring that Armidale Secondary College becomes the first and best educational choice in Armidale as we all work together to find positive ways of learning and growing.

Staffing recruitment for next year has been in full swing with a variety of appointments through the department’s central staffing system and through recruitment panels. Thank you to all our P&C members and AECG members who consistently volunteer to be a part of these panels and to ensure we have great staff to guide our students’ learning and wellbeing. We will have new staff in Maths, Science, HSIE, TAS, PDHPE and 2 new Deputy Principals to start the new year.

Our Year 7 and 8 students have had a very exciting time at their Hat Head Camps, participating in great activities such as surfing and canoeing and being challenged by some strenuous bush walking. These wonderful camps can not happen without the incredible organisation, support, and sacrifice of our dedicated ASC staff. After several years of no camps and limited excursions due to Covid, our staff were excited to provide our stage 4 students with these great opportunities. The majority of students took on the challenges and demonstrated respect, responsibility and resilience.

It was wonderful to enjoy our ‘breakfast of champions’ with our new senior student leaders and their families. This diverse and talented group of students are working hard to ensure that they leave a leadership legacy at ASC with plans to grow leadership teams across the year groups and reinvigorate representation on the student representative council. Our team are also very humble, and don’t brag about some of their incredible achievements which include national and state level representation in sport, governance, and cultural pursuits. I was amazed to hear of one of our students undertaking a solo ride from Glenn Innes to Noosa. As you can see by the photos later in the newsletter, these students tower over me, and I am humbled by their incredible achievements (already). I am really looking forward to seeing what they can achieve this year and how they grow their skills and abilities as leaders and learners.

Captain- Nicole Tarrant

Captain- Ashton Mace

Vice-Captain- Peace Ajuogu

Vice-Captain- Lekzin Thinley

Vice-Captain- Tom Waugh

Arts Captain- Archie Todd

Arts Captain- Hannah Angel

Sports Captain- Caleb Bettison

Sports Captain- Clio Knight

Support Unit Leader- Jacob Lawrence

Support Unit Leader- Sheneen Quinlan

The first five weeks of term 4 have seen us seeking your input into improving our school. We have been involved in several programs to ensure we are achieving our best here at ASC. We have been seeking your feedback across a variety of spheres. Through the Schools Strategic Support HSC Attainment, we have sought the voice of our Aboriginal Students and staff as well as community members to help to improve HSC success for Aboriginal students. Through The Tell Them from Me and Partners in Learning Surveys, we have asked you what works best for student learning and wellbeing in our school. It was an honour to welcome our community Elders to the school to be interviewed by their children and grandchildren for the Storylines project. (https://storylines.com.au/) Storylines are assisting Aboriginal Communities across the country to find their mob and share their stories and we will be engaging the Storylines team again in the future, along with our partner primary schools.

We have also been working with the Safeguarding Kids Together team to listen to student forums about how we can assist to improve their wellbeing at school. Later in the term I will be holding a parent forum on High Potential and Gifted Education. Your voice matters and your respectful ideas and opinions help to guide the future of our school. Positive improvement and change takes time. The best way to make it happen is by working together with a common goal. The common vision that we have determined at ASC is “Our future, our learning. Our community promotes creativity, collaboration, and success for every learner through a safe, inclusive environment and a personalised, relevant curriculum.” We are achieving this within the framework of our core values of respect, responsibility, and resilience.

As any parent would be aware, sometimes our young people stumble when learning to operate within frameworks, guidelines and rules and push back against them. Sometimes young lives outside of school, get in the way of learning and young people need to be redirected through appropriate process and procedures, that are part of the way the Department of Education operates. Our new suite of policies “Inclusive, Engaging, Respectful Schools” is the framework under which we as a school are now operating. We are currently refining our School Behaviour Support and Management Plan in collaboration with the team from Safeguarding Kids Together. This replaces the current “school discipline policy” next term. This is what guides our responses to any behaviours which are outside of appropriate. If you have questions about this suite, the P&C general meeting is a great place to come and discuss changes in the school and department and how they may affect your family. Getting the information from the source is always more effective than believing social media.

We are all looking forward to the CAPA showcase that will be held in the MPC on Thursday evening following the Year 6 into 7 information evening. Our CAPA students and staff have been whistling while they work and will be bringing our community an incredible evening of variety to enjoy in our great new space. An encore performance by the Side by Side Choir who performed so beautifully at New England Sings, cannot be missed.

Our next P&C Meeting will be held November 24 in the ASC Staff Common Room (Level 2 A Block). All parents and carers are encouraged to come along and be a part of our school. Also don’t forget the P&C Pudding Drive.