“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice.” – T.S. Eliot
It’s already difficult to remember the language of last year. It’s so…well, last year.
2025 is a completely new year which requires its own vernacular. I’ve already been talking to staff about enrolments and budgets, student credentials and university offers. I’ve mentioned my desire that we maintain standards and our application for candidacy for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme for 2027 (more on this later). I’ve mentioned the Commonwealth Government’s Capacity to Contribute system, and the term funding has been used more than once in dispatches. I’ve been speaking about Professional Learning and study tours, Long Service Leave and calendar dates. I have spoken to the student body about being welcoming and inclusive and how we have all experienced change. 2025 has indeed brought with it a new focus and the language that goes along with it.
What doesn’t change in our approach, of course, is that it is customary to welcome our families to the new year at SCAS. If you’re new to the scene, I wish you a warm welcome, and if you’re an old hand, welcome back.
Every year at this time, I get a little excited about the possibility of the new year and what it might bring. It’s a bit like moving into a new year group, that delicious anticipation of the new and unknown. The hope for a new start, the promise to be better than last year (or is that just me?)
I spoke to the combined school assembly this week about change and the need to embrace it. Change is inevitable. Mr Zavone spoke to the staff last year about the rapid development of technology and scared us all by reminding us that the experts are saying that “the pace of change has never been this fast and will never be this slow again…”. This is the world our children will inherit, and we need to prepare them for it intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually to navigate such a world successfully. Thank you for entrusting us with this task. I think as a school, we’re on the right track to do this.
I hope 2025 is all you hope it will be. I hope that the changes you experience throughout the year are positive ones or at least ones you can learn from. I look forward to catching up with you throughout the year.
Allan Guihot
Principal