Bishop Druitt College has been recognised nationally as a 5-Star Employer of Choice

Bishop Druitt College has been recognised nationally as a 5-Star Employer of Choice by The Educator. A prestigious award highlighting outstanding workplace culture in the education sector.

What makes a leader? Personal growth through our wellbeing, pastoral programs and rites of passage remain central to our Anglican school philosophy and are embedded in our belief in the pursuit of excellence through our pedagogical priorities for academic achievement by our inspiring teachers and Learning Coaches. The College also places a strong emphasis on nurturing Australia’s future leaders through our leadership programs.

Community, parents, carers and our staff provide leadership opportunities across their time in school including coaching opportunities, peer support, leading visitors, team captains eg sport, assistant coaches or becoming an MC at a school or community event, leading a surf patrol or demonstrating a song through our performing arts.

Leadership comes in many forms for our children in the community and across our school and these wide range of opportunities assist in developing their leadership skills as a part of The BDC Way. We formally recognise leadership roles in Year 6 and Year 12. These are school house leaders and captains.

We commenced Term 3 through our signature event, the secondary leadership induction. In this service we thank our outgoing Class of 2025 leaders and welcome our new Year 11 leaders. Our assembly integrates powerful symbols including candles as a light for leadership, badges to represent the formal role, a signing of the leadership ledger as a part of their legacy and prayer by parents to symbolise the important role our families play.

Already these new leadership roles have completed a handover with the outgoing School Executive to build their capacity with Mrs Bruggemann and other key staff as they complete their leadership induction. Students experience and are taught key skills on becoming proactive, responsible citizens at the beginning of their formal leadership role. Character traits are developed further through collaborative team meetings, assemblies, working with their staff mentor and naturally their Year Coordinator and families. We wish our new School Executive well in their roles and thank the outgoing team as they focus on their HSC studies.

The developmental process is another example of The BDC Advantage in action. We invest in the leadership process, as it takes a lot to be a leader. Year 6 commence their handover and election process in Term 4.

Principal Commissioning 

I would like to acknowledge the many well wishes and guests who attended my formal commissioning in Week 1. It was something that was very meaningful for my family and especially my mother and sister who could attend.

Thank you to the coordinating team Rev Lisa Williamson, Mrs Sue O’Connor, Mrs Susan Nealon, Ms Claire Beheiry and Archdeacon Tiffany Sparkes.

Local Connections

Across our learning continuum K-12 our teachers strive to link real world examples and connect with our community. Sometimes this can be very difficult or time can be limited.

It was exciting to see this across Stage 2 recently where our local MP Mr Gurmesh Singh attended and spoke with Year 3-4 over the foreshore proposals. It connected with our students after their field trip to the harbour in their Geography/PBL unit on environmental sustainability. Mr Singh was generous with his time and we had an engaging Q&A session.

Year 4 commenced Term 3 with persuasive writing using the Talk4Writing process and they invited me to listen to their early technique in the imitation phase or modelled text. I look forward to their finished letters.

Year 6 are investigating in their unit called A Diverse and Connected World and have a range of speakers coming in to assist them in linking to real world examples. I was fortunate to be invited to speak to Year 6 about the people in Ukraine and I presented on the difference in money, flags, national colours, Vyshyvanka day and shirts, pysanky (Easter eggs) and volunteering. The power of this investigation and developing citizenship traits further is essential in their development as a world prepared, empathetic and informed citizen.

Year 1 have completed their connection with the environment as a part of our outdoor education programs and the wonderful artwork by our Art for Wellbeing Year 5 and 6 students were recently on display.

School Plan 26+

The College Council and College Leadership Team have completed designing our SP26+ which has built upon our current plan that is being finalised this year. The 5 key areas for development and focus are similar to our current strategic intents and from 2026 they will be:

Promote and Enhance Wellbeing

Learner at the Centre

Enhancing Beyond the Classroom

Inspiring Professionals

Sustainability, Renewal and Growth

In the coming weeks we will share more detail and a survey to ask for your feedback. If, for example, there are people who may wish to be involved in some of these areas or may know of experts or contacts for the College Leadership Team to consider.

Term 3

We wish Year 8 and 10 well for their World Options and Excelsior Journey program. Year 10 have almost completed one on one interviews for their Year 11 subject selections and we wish them well as they focus on pathways, careers and the possibility of further study.

Enrolments 2026 and Beyond

The enrolments team has recently welcomed a number of new families for 2026 in: Kindergarten, Year 5 and Year 7.

The process is still to be completed, with a few interviews to finalise. However, there are a small number of spots in Kindergarten this year, Stage 2 next year and Year 11 2026.

We always have families moving into the area and it is unlikely these places are will be available at the end of this year.

We encourage enrolment early at BDC, joining us at Kindergarten is the best time for enrolment for wellbeing, literacy and numeracy development and creating friendships for life.

Upcoming College Events

The 4th September is our annual Father's Day Breakfast. Please RSVP to assist with catering ASAP.
Link > https://www.trybooking.com/DCAOT

We wish our HSC students well for the Trial HSC and the annual High Performance Program Camp is on the way to the Gold Coast. Good luck to our NCIS Athletics team and the Sasebo Sister City Exchange students join us soon. We wish them a big welcome to the Coffs Coast.

Thank you for your involvement in our College events.

God bless,

Simon Doyle
Principal