Happy New Year and welcome back to school!

This summer holiday is especially different to our International students. Due to the travel restrictions, none of the girls returned to their home countries. This means that Term 1 2021 marks the full year since they last saw their parents and family. We are very fortunate to have several families from the school community offering homestay opportunities and making their time away from home filled with love and care. We can’t say too much thank you for the support and for the great memories you gave to our girls.

It has also been encouraging to see how the girls become more resilient and considerate through managing homesickness and learning how to join Australian families. We found that not only their verbal English has dramatically improved, but also their social skills and cultural understanding. It is such a surprise to hear how they were pranked by homestay siblings, and how they “revenged” instead of not knowing how to respond like when they first came. For this, despite that it was hard not to go home, they have gained much more than what they expected. 

We will be continuing welcoming Pathways students joining our online Segue course, too. These students are keen to study in Australia and want to be prepared once the borders open in hopefully the near future. Mrs Eastment and Mrs Sennett in Bathurst will be teaching them with a mix of different subjects and activities. 

We look forward to seeing girls returning to school, as well as the students joining the program online, to continue learning, growing and turning a new page in their adventure at PLC Armidale.