It is with a sense of great excitement that we are coming to the end of Term 3 where Year 6 are performing their traditional Year 6 Play for 2025, Super Stan and Super Sam. The energy across rehearsals and performances have been entertaining.

The Class of 2025 are also preparing for their final rite of passage across the last week. This significant time in the life of our Year 12 students includes a beautiful service at St John’s Anglican Church, farewells in house groups, the Valedictory Assembly and of course the formal dinner. Many of us can reflect on the rites of passage that we experienced growing up - such as our own high school graduation, first job, 21st birthday, getting our car licence and weddings. These are momentous occasions where we celebrate change and welcome a person into their new stage of life. These rituals remind us that we are constantly evolving and that life is a transformative journey. At BDC they connect us with the past and help us to make sense of change and our growth through stages and often year levels. We welcome all families and friends of BDC to these two important signature events.

The Class of 2025
Year 12 have excelled across their time at BDC and their legacy has continued to be impressive. Over the last 3 weeks there have been significant achievements including below:

- HSC examination performances have been completed by Dance, Drama, Music 1 and Music 2 students.

- 16 students have already received early entry to university study including University of New England, University of Wollongong, Charles Sturt University and the University of New South Wales. Law, Engineering, Pre-Medicine, Exercise and Sports Science, and Paramedicine have been the main courses on offer so far.

- 1st Place, Distance Education, Enterprise Computing: Jack Easter.

- Sydney Conservatorium of Music, unconditional offers: Camble Scott and Olivia Hoare.

- HSC Dance Call Back Nominations: Ella-Grace Chowdhury and Hunter Metcalf.

- HSC Drama nominations for OnStage: Olivia Brown, Ella-Grace Chowdury and Hunter Metcalf.

- Languages oral HSC Examinations have been completed for French and Japanese Continuers and Italian Beginners.

- Many major works have also been completed and submitted.

The above exemplifies the BDC Way and the pursuit of excellence, with lots more to come from these wonderful young adults. Congratulations to our Class of 2025 and I hope you enjoy the rite of passage as you become a Valedictorian and BDC Alumni. I look forward to seeing our community come together at our Valedictory Assembly.

Inspiring Staff
Mr Ben Andrews, Mrs Fiona Harris, Mrs Kayla Lewis and Mrs Sam Maker have received successful nominations for the Teachers’ Guild of New South Wales 2025 Awards for Excellence in Teaching. We wish to thank them for their dedication and inspiring teaching. Congratulations on their nomination and we wish you well for the final process in late October.

Enrolments 2026 and Beyond
Demand for places to join our BDC family continues to be strong and as a result of inquiries across Year 3-4 the College has been able to successfully form a new Year 3 and a new Year 4 class in 2026 to support our families. This will replace the current Year 3-4 combined class. It also brings forward by 12 months the planned increase in classes for these year groups. Our enrolments team are in contact with these families and we look forward to them becoming a part of our primary school next year.

Please do not wait to apply for enrolment. The College works with families from an early stage, including enrolment applications. If in doubt, please contact the enrolments team about your application at any time. Applying early is the key. Kindergarten 2027 has 134 applicants so far and we start Kindy 2027 interviews in Term 1 2026.

A career change or relocation? A friendly reminder that the College requires a term’s notice for all departures to be inclusive of due fees and tuition payments before departure. Our terms and conditions include the payment of a term’s tuition fee as a part of the process unless a term’s notice is given.

Recruitment for 2026
We continue to complete our recruitment across the Campus for 2026. Recruitment in the primary school has been a big focus over recent weeks and further announcements will be made shortly. I now congratulate Ms Andrea Wiffen, who is currently the acting K-12 Director of Student Wellbeing, to the role of Head of Secondary from 2026.

Outdoor Education Program
Year 1 and Year 4 have been enjoying the adventures through our Outdoor Education Program as a rite of passage. Year 4 had brilliant weather last week and an overnight stay in the Branson Centre. Thank you to Mr Tim Chapman for coordinating our programs and our families supporting each of these important student events as they become closer together in a fun environment.

Barracuda Sport
Barracuda Rugby and Soccer have had their end of season celebrations. Both events have been well attended and every student had a smile on their face as they received certificates and medals. Although, looking at the coaches and managers who greeted the teams, I think they were having as much fun or more. Thank you to the many volunteer coaches, managers and Mrs Prue Graham for making the season a success for every student.

Round Square
The Round Square International Conference is in Dubai and we wish Mrs Sue O’Connor and Mr James Brown well as they take our students to this conference.

Year 10 and Year 11 2026
Term 3 has created the opportunity for many discussions on career pathways, patterns of study and the Excelsior Pathway. Year 9-10 2026 will have a wide variety of World Options to choose from and including our accelerated courses of Business Studies, Mathematics and Studies of Religion. Our large range of courses are once again on offer for Year 11, including Geography for the first time in a long time.

Do you know of a friend or neighbour who is considering schools for Year 11? Please suggest to them to contact our enrolments team enrolments@bdc.nsw.edu.au for further information on joining us in Year 11 (where we have limited vacancies) for 2026.

BDC Horizon Online Learning
The BDC online learning framework continues to grow and in Year 11 2026 Advanced English and Mathematics, Geography, Health Movement Science, Biology and Agriculture will be running online. Please contact Mr Craig Verbruggen cverbruggen@bdc.nsw.edu.au for further details.

Signature Events
23 September, Year 12 Valedictory Service
24 September, Year 12 Valedictory Assembly
25 September, Year 12 Valedictory Dinner
26 September, Year 6 Empathy Projects
26 September, last day of Term 3
13 October, Term 4 commences

There are many events across Term 4. Please check our school calendar on Schoolbox for dates including the Sports Award Dinner, Performing Arts Night, and Year 9 Outdoor Education Program.

Performing Arts Music Centre
Our new Performing Arts Music Centre is almost complete and our music tutor rooms are under construction. We hope for them to be open for Term 4. 

Community Engagement 
Throughout the term we have been developing two community engagement initiatives, Perks and Perspectives as we visit Woolgoolga, Coffs Harbour and Bellingen communities. We have met a range of families and this time the main topic has been AI. We will have a focus in 2026 on technology and the use of AI, thank you for your feedback. These will occur again in Term 2 next year. The second initiative is when a number of students have completed Chalk Talk, our podcast we are developing as well. I recommend you follow each episode and listen to the wisdom and experiences of our students. They are both entertaining and brilliant.

Service Learning 
It is pleasing to see our students involved in service learning and this week Murray House will continue fundraising for Ukraine. I have been completing weekly online conversations in English for students in Ukraine (often 30-40 students online in their holidays) and the fatigue from nightly alerts at times has been obvious and very confronting. Their positive energy and enthusiasm for connection is always rewarding.

I will be on leave from 25th September until 17th October. Please contact Mrs Sue O’Connor - Acting Head of Secondary Assistant Principal, or Mrs Sarah Stokes - Head of Primary, if you have any questions over this time.

We wish the Class of 2025 well for their HSC written examinations and their future as BDC Alumni. We hope they continue to stay in touch over the coming years.

Thank you for Term 3 and we look forward to Term 4.

God bless,
Simon

Simon Doyle
Principal