Term 1 has had a great start with our House Leaders and Heads of House creating a sense of excitement and house spirit on our first day back for 2025. Students have settled in, reconnecting with friends, and embracing new learning opportunities. Especially Year 7 who have been attending their Outdoor Education Program and rite of passage into high school this week. Thank you to Nicole Matthews, Year 10 Peer Support and Tim Chapman along with the Tutor Team for the opportunity.
Character and Service are the values and dimensions we are focussing on at the start of the year and what this means through the BDC Way. Year Coordinators, Heads of House and our staff are also focusing on building a strong sense of belonging.
2025 will continue to develop and for staff to embed Deep Learning. This week we commence our planning for Semester 1 and the year ahead to develop the competencies for Creativity, Citizenship, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Character after their introduction in 2024. Throughout 2025 the secondary campus will also continue to develop and investigate middle school options, student profile reporting, innovative spaces for the new innovation centre, our academies and high performance programs and research in schools. Throughout 2025 we will further embed our digital badging and credentialing program.
Back to school routines are always interesting to establish at the start of each year. Thank you for your support and a few reminders to support college expectations and learning across 7 to12:
The Year 7 Information Night, Sundowner, Swimming Carnival have all been well attended and where parents can attend we encourage this assistance in connecting with our BDC community. The Swimming Carnival was an outstanding success thanks to our Heads of House with their House Leaders, staff, students and Kellie Reinhold and Prue Graham. You are always welcome at our secondary assembly Friday morning.
Macquarie University provided an outstanding experience for STEMM. Mick Klipin and Karina Rothacker have returned from Rwanda and their Round Square Conference. And we wish Year 7 well with Christabel Martin and Mark Freeman in Thailand.
I will share some of my experience across the year for when I was in Ukraine last December with the Scottish charity HopeFull. The question that constantly came to mind when I was in country is “what would I/you do?” if I was living in Ukraine from the daily concerns of living in a war zone, to the dispossession of land, elimination of your cultural heritage and of course the constant worry for family and safety just by going to work or the shops. What would you do as a parent or carer to keep your family safe and your children safe and learning? I saw one possible answer to this in my experience visiting a purpose built underground school. School 88 replaced the above ground school which had not been used for three years as it was unsafe to be used. In Zaporizhia where School 88 exists, it takes under 3 minutes for a missile or glide bomb to reach it’s destination. The response to this is to construct multiple underground schools and School 88 had just opened the week before when I visited.
Outside was biting cold and also haunting in the ghost like above ground buildings that were empty. However, upon being taken into their underground school and welcomed by every person I met and the warmth from internal heating, it was a complete change. Staff were excited that children would be safe, students were excited to be together, there were modern classrooms like our iHUB and Rodham Block. From what I could understand the community were reassured about safety and the opportunity for children to reconnect and learn from dedicated caring staff. They have been online for almost 3 years (we remember the impact this had on our short online time due to COVID19). This school will become a community and cultural hub as well.
Walking along the concrete hallways (it is built for 500 students), every space was intended for use from rest areas, canteen, play area or a library. The school will complete two shifts a day, therefore providing a safe place for learning for over 1000 students in a day. Reinforced concrete walls 7m underground and with radiation and bomb proof doors, the school community could be here for 2-3 days if required. The team at this school were living our values of courage, generosity of spirit and service everyday to achieve building a purpose built school I was told in 6 months.
Although everything was new, reading books were in short supply. In return for their hospitality and this experience and our actions through Faithfulness in Service, we will be sending some reading books (in English) for use at this school. Including an autographed copy of Diamond of the Sea by Bonnie Hancock (Iron Person and ex local and Sawtell SLSC member). Please keep the community in Ukraine in your thoughts and prayers, as this week has demonstrated, changes occur daily in the political world and on the ground in this invasion impacted country.
Welcome to our first term for 2025, please contact the Heads of Faculty or Year Coordinators if you have any questions throughout the year for wellbeing or subject areas.
Simon Doyle
Assistant Principal (Head of Secondary)
The graduating class of 2024 achieved some fantastic outcomes! We had 63 students from a cohort of 82 students apply for university with 60 students being offered a place at university. That's a 95% success rate for students applying for and being offered a place to study at university. Many students received multiple offers to study at different universities and it is important to note that students received offers to study their preferred courses or are on a strong pathway to study their dream course.
Special mention goes to:
Students who received an offer to study medicine - Hargun Ghuman (Pre-med at the University of Wollongong), Clare Kelly (University of Newcastle and James Cook University), Joshua Lim (University of Newcastle and James Cook University), Healey Yong (University of NSW and pre-med at the University of Wollongong).
Students who received offers to study engineering at highly competitive universities - Mia Diggens (University of NSW and University of Queensland) and Betty Tesfarmariam (University of NSW and Monash University)
Jimmy Lamont received 2 offers to study veterinary sciences (Charles Sturt University and James Cook University).
Congratulations to Cooper Milham who successfully completed a Certificate II in Electrotechnology (TAFE NSW) and Taylan Kapukaya for completing the School Based Traineeship component of a Certificate III in Barbering (TAFE NSW).
Well done to the 23 students who successfully completed a vocational education and training (VET) course delivered at BDC, these students were able to complete both their qualification and receive their HSC at the same time.
These are fabulous results for the Class of 2024! The hard work more than paid off and you are in such good standing for your future endeavours and career pathways, we wish you all the best!
The University Roadshow is a combined universities tour visiting Year 12 students at schools across our region.
The University of Newcastle, Charles Sturt University, Southern Cross University and the University of New England met with our Class of 2025 students to chat about all things in preparation for university including early entry, pathways to university, 2026 course offerings, on campus accommodation, and scholarships. Students had the opportunity to hear from and meet and greet with these respective universities Future Student Team and Student Ambassadors. We even had the pleasure of hearing from a BDC Alumnus - Milli Halliwell who went on to study sociology and is now working as part of the University of New England Future Students team.
On Monday 4 February, 13 students and 2 teachers made their way down to Sydney to attend STEMM camp (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) at Macquarie University. The students experienced three very full days of hands-on workshops that encompass a large range of STEMM skills, an industry expo, Q & A sessions with professional women in STEM and a formal graduation dinner. It was a full immersion experience into the life of a University student, as they were treated to the dorm life, staying on campus, eating in the dining hall and having to share communal bathrooms. Besides being exhausted by the time they returned to BDC, the students were inspired by their experiences and now have their eyes more open to the vast range of possibilities for their future tertiary studies. The students represented our college beautifully, we can all be very proud of them.
Mrs Fiona Harris (Science) and Mrs Renee Dawson (Mathematics)
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