Dear College Families
What a wonderful year this has been and what a busy last Term 4.
It has been such a pleasure seeing the students’ projects when they presented their work at the Rite Journey early in the Term. I am sure many parents felt very proud of the way the students in Year 9 thought about how they could interact and serve their community or produce something very creative from materials they discovered in the environment. Congratulations to all teachers and students involved.
From Athletics Carnivals in Primary to Kindy Christmas concerts, the Rottnest Camp for Secondary and the amazing Art Exhibition this Term, we have seen our students continue to shine. There have been many events this Term where we have celebrated our students and our thanks extends to all our staff and College familieswho have made these events and so many more, very memorable. Our Year 12 Graduation was a wonderful occasion to celebrate our graduates and the evening was a joyous time for all families who attended. Congratulations to all our outstanding Award winners. Congratulations to all our students in both Primary and Secondary who have won awards and certificates as presented during the Presentation assemblies.
Student Executive Team
As one year finishes and we prepare for the next year I wish to congratulate our elected Student Executive Team and all our student leaders. It was fantastic to present to our Secondary students a talk on leadership at their leadership training day in November this Term. It was also very special for me to meet with our Student Executive Team. Congratulations to:
Head Boy, Cameron Watts
Head Girl, Angelia Montini
Deputy Head Boy, Brendan Raymond
Deputy Head Girl, Taitum Ellis.
Mr King recently arranged a meeting in my office for me to meet with the Student Executive. It is clear to me that we have a strong and committed Student leadership for 2024 with purposeful hearts and good character. We prayed together for the Lord to bless our College and the work that is ahead which will continue to strengthen and develop opportunities, and grow what is good. I thank the Student Executive for meeting with me and for the time we shared in conversation.
Staff Farewells
You would have read my earlier message announcing that Mr Jon Lituri, Director H&W /Deputy Head of Primary (Wellbeing) after serving 11 years at SCBC, has recently been appointed the Principal of Atlantis Beach Baptist College. We shall miss Mr Lituri but we congratulate him on his appointment. He will be an excellent leader of the school he will be leading in 2024. The appointment of the new Deputy Head of Primary (Wellbeing) is currently being finalised and you will be notified soon of the successful appointee.
Mr James Trimble our Head of Secondary is also leaving at the end of 2023 after making the difficult decision to step away from leadership for a while, but to have more time for family. We commend Mr Trimble for prioritising family above all and we shall miss him at the College. Perhaps when this window of time is over he may decide to return to SCBC in another role one day. We wish Mr Trimble the very best and thank him for the superb way in which he has led the Secondary School and contributed to the College in previous roles during his tenure at the College. In all Mr Trimble has served for 11 years at the College in various roles.
We welcome Mr Nick Harris who succeeds Mr Trimble as our new Head of Secondary. Mr Harris is a highly experienced leader and comes to us from Carey Baptist College where he has been the Assistant Principal of a large Secondary School for the past 7 years. We are blessed to have Mr Harris join the team and we know that his skillset in leadership and his good character and Christian faith will continue the good work that is evident and thriving in our Secondary School.
Strategic Plan
Earlier this year you would have read that we were embarking on a new Strategic Plan. Thank you for participating in the consultation surveys and in the parent coffeemorning if you were able to do so. The work is now completed and we will be launching our new Strategic Plan very early in 2024. It is a remarkable blueprint for Christian Schooling Excellence and the work that has been done to provide our community with a first rate plan has been extensive. I thank the whole team and our Board and consultant, for the many workshops and collaborations to finally arrive at a very pleasing result. You will receive the Plan next year during the official launch. In addition, we were charged with replacing the old tagline of ‘Rigorous Minds, Compassionate Hearts’ with a new tagline. This will be revealed in the new Strategic Plan. We also have inserted the College motto in the Plan which will also be revealed. We also were charged with a re-brand of new Crest design that meaningfully captured the identity of the College, its heritage and its purpose. Our Brand Specialist Mr Young who has led the project, and our Marketing Specialist Mr Norris, have been hard at work on this project and in the New Year you will see the result of much research and data capture to arrive at a final approved design of which we can all be proud. While the re-brand will mean that uniforms and signs will need to change, there will of course be a transition period of 2-3 years until the change is complete in all crested goods, merchandise, signage and communications. We will also be launching our new website next year once it is ready to go live.
Building Projects
The building of a new secondary block of beautiful new modern classrooms, a heritage gallery a cross-fit centre and more, will commence soon and expected completion date is January 2025 (the year of the College 40th Anniversary). We are also working on designing improvements to the landscape in the form of a small Christian prayer garden/reflective space and also a large events space with amphitheatre seating. We are also preparing for the creation of a new, architect inspired master capital works plan for our buildings and grounds. All of this is a result of the initiatives of our new Strategic Plan and the opportunities that will be provided in teaching and learning for our students to enjoy their learning journeys will become more evident as the Strategic Plan is implemented. The name of our Strategic Plan is ‘Reach for our Purpose’ and we are excited to launch this excellent forward strategy for South Coast Baptist College in the New Year coming. It will bring much good news!
The close of our Year brings the holy season of Christmas to us in December. We remember the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour at this very beautiful time each year. May you have a very happy Christmas and may you be very blessed as you enjoy time with family and friends.
Dawn Clements
Principal
Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”