From the Principal

Welcome to 2017

Welcome to 2017 captioned over an image of students

After a long break that has included heatwaves, HSC results (stunning), university offers (very pleasing), building, cleaning, enrolment interviews, meetings, class preparations, painting and air-conditioning, SCAS is ready for 2017.

There has been a very positive response to our Higher School Certificate results (we ranked in the top 100 schools for the third year running) and we now have waiting lists in some years.

While achieving prominence as an academic high performing school in the media, we know there is much more to a SCAS education than examination results.

We have over thirty performing arts groups in our co-curricular program (and did I neglect to mention our new Performing Arts Centre that will come “online” this year?), we are in the top level of the Hunter Region Independent Schools for sport, we have new specialist/high performance sporting programs beginning and our students regularly “star” in a range of external competitions.

That is what happens when great students meet great teachers in a positive learning environment!

We aim to make 2017 another year when we move even closer to being able to (with proof) call ourselves a great school. We know what makes a great school:

A great school…

  • never thinks it is good enough
  • sets improvement goals
  • talks about learning, not just about results
  • has high expectations:
    • Staff: Accountability, professionalism, mindfulness, and compassion
    • Students: Responsibility, resilience and respect
  • knows the interests of all students and helps them develop aspirations
  • is proud of the triers, not just the trophies
  • has strong values but will teach kids how to think and not what to think
  • offers a clean and well-organised environment that is conducive to learning
  • has reliable, friendly and hardworking support staff
  • works to build a safe learning environment for students
  • provides state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to help improve student learning

It is going to be a great year.

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