Principal
It has often been said that the Melbourne Cup is the race that stops the nation. I am not sure that is still the case in so many workplaces today. It certainly wasn’t the case for staff at Nudgee College who were involved in Orientation Afternoon #1 on Tuesday. Last moment preparations were underway for the arrival of the many new boys and families who were to attend that afternoon.
There will be around 250 new students commencing at the College in 2023. 190 of them will be day boys and 60 will be boarders. 140 will start in Year 5 while a further 70 will begin in Year 7. For the boys and their parents there was a mixture of excitement and anxiety as they gathered at the O’Neill Building undercroft after school. As many current families would attest, Orientation is a very important step as parents, staff and our Senior students help young boys to prepare for their first days at the College.
A side note to Orientation. Our year 12s, who conclude their school days in a few short weeks, and who commenced at Nudgee College in year 5, held their Orientation in 2014 as they were the Year 5s of 2015. We have seen some significant changes at the College in that time. Conversely, the Year 5 cohort who will commence in 2023 will be part of the Senior class of 2030. What changes will the College undergo during their time? In effect, their experiences in the first steps of their journey at Nudgee College will help to shape them as the Year 12s who will lead the College into our next decade. What an awesome thought!
Back to the present.
The responsibility for Orientation afternoon rests with Ms Susan Shakespear, our Director of Admissions, and her team. They work closely with parents, sometimes for years, as the families navigate from an enrolment enquiry, to an application, interview, offer of enrolment and eventually to acceptance of that offer. In these final weeks and months, the Admissions team guides and prepares families for that first school day in January. Successfully leading this process is incredibly important as enrolments are the lifeblood of the College.
We have been fortunate that over recent years the College has experienced a growth in enrolments. From 1,500 in 2015 to 1,700 since 2020. This growth in current enrolments is now matched by an increase in the numbers in our waitlisting pool. There is a pressure for places, which is a healthy position to be, but also a position that needs to be managed carefully with prospective families.
Since taking up the position of Director of Admission in 2016, Susan has been outstanding in her stewardship of this vital process. In 2023, Susan will step into a new role at the College as Manager of Compliance. This is an opportunity for her to use the skills and knowledge that she had developed in her previous employment. We remain very grateful for the invaluable contribution that she has made to the College in Admissions and we also know that the College will benefit from her oversight of Compliance in the future.
Compliance and risk management has been an ever expanding area of school life and we have been fortunate to have another highly capable professional lead the College staff in this area. Ms Donna Roberts has managed risk and compliance for us since 2018. She has worked closely with our Deputy Principal, Mr David Johnston, to ensure that our processes, practices and policies met the highest standards. Donna is returning full time to the classroom in 2023. The high quality of her work in compliance has mirrored that of Susan in Admissions and we are grateful for all that Donna has done over that time.
These staffing changes necessitate others within the College. Ms Tara Shipperley (Director of Development and Communications) has been on maternity leave since late 2021 and will return in 2023 as the interim Director of Admissions. Tara, too, has been highly successful in leading DevComm and connecting its operations more closely with almost every dimension of school life. Throughout 2022 her role has been very capably filled by Ms Hannah Kilburn, who has built further on this progress. Hannah will continue as the interim Director of DevComm next year.
Finally, a couple of takeaways from all of the above. While the learning, care and faith formation of our boys remains at the heart of what we do every day, there are also other significant dimensions to successful school operations, such as Admissions, Compliance and Risk as well as Development and Communications. To be a high performing school, Nudgee College needs these to be functioning well and they are. Further, we are blessed to have some highly talented, professional women who lead these critical dimensions of school life. In a large, complex all boys school such as ours these women are important role models for high performing leadership.
Mr Peter Fullagar
Principal