When Mr. Tim Shields commenced his role as principal of Australian Christian College Singleton the school had grown from 40 to 70 students under its management.
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Fast forward three years and the school, which now caters for 190 students, provides Year 12 curriculum in 2019.
We speak to the school’s leader about his secrets to success:
Australian Christian College (Singleton) principal Mr. Tim Shields has paid tribute to all of his staff and parents who supported his quest to extend his school’s curriculum to Year 12 level.
“We returned to school this year and we’ve been on a journey with the parents the entire time,” the third year headmaster explained.
A total of ten Year 12 students will study for their respective HSC certificate in the 2019 school year.
This brings the school’s total number of students to 190, a far cry from its modest 40 shortly after the campus was taken over by Australian Christian College in 2013.
“I was willing to start with three students because it was up to us to establish it,” he added.
“There’s a reality of the paperwork, going through the government and they have all their cheques and balances during the application process so it’s really good because it forces you to think things through.”
“Then there’s the perception of what people think and you need to be a big school to have all the options.
“If our students are going to give good outcomes then we have to be exceptional teachers and so the last couple of years we’ve been refining and keeping ourselves accountable.”
“When I go to a restaurant and there’s a menu there’s a lot of options on it, I can’t eat all of it though so I can only choose one or two of those things because I really enjoy those things.”
“That’s the senior school, if the child doesn’t have the core literacy or mathematical skills then the child won’t enjoy the entire menu in the workplace and their boss won’t either.”
This bank of research has now enabled students to remain at the campus in addition to the renovations of five different buildings under Mr. Shields’ leadership.
“If 100 new students showed up up tomorrow we’d open rooms but I am starting to talk to the board about further building plans,” he explained.
When asked about his academic expectations for this historic ‘Class of 2019’, Mr Shields strongly believes that success at senior level is different from child to child.
“Some of them are here because they think university is their pathway and they want their best result to gain entry into a particular course,” he said.
“But we have some students that are here because either haven’t got an apprenticeship.”
“If they have to withdraw from their studies due to finding an apprenticeship before the exam period then we see that as success as well.”
“Our target is not the HSC or the data, our target is what is going to assist a child with what’s best for the next part of their life; so it is game day for the teachers.”
