Welcome to the first Illalong for the 2020 academic year and I wish to extend a particularly warm welcome to all our new families to A.B. Paterson College and to our returning families too.
In 2020, A.B. Paterson College celebrates 30 years of operation. Our College started with the aim of achieving academic excellence in a caring environment, where cultural and sporting activities would be an integral part of students’ college life. Today, our College motto of ‘Excellence, Care and Commitment’ reflects the aims of its founders. Across our 30th Anniversary year, we have many opportunities to celebrate being part of this wonderful community – please do stay in touch by reading Illalong, but also downloading our A.B. App and joining us on our College Facebook page.
A.B. Paterson College is very much a learning community and our College staff have been back for a few weeks, participating in professional development as well as catching up on research and trends in education to allow us to amalgamate this into our practices for the benefit of our students.
Our College calendar is able to be downloaded to allow for planning for the variety of events across each term. Our first event is the Parent and Teacher social evening in the LPAC on Tuesday 11 February for Junior School parents, and Wednesday 12 February for Senior School parents. This is an opportunity to learn about school routines and meet your children’s teachers - we do hope to see as many parents attending these events as possible. It is a great opportunity to meet staff and to hear about the plans for the year and information relevant to your son and daughter’s education.
Across the term, a variety of the College’s Senior Leadership Team will write in our newsletter on a range of topics. It is our major form of communication to our College community about the latest research that is impacting our teaching and learning program, the achievements of staff and students, what we have said to students at assemblies and a reminder about the latest events in the school.
I am really excited about the year ahead and hope that you and your son or daughter are also looking forward to a rewarding and fulfilling year. Welcome to the 2020 Academic Year!
Joanne Sheehy - Principal/Head of College

Holiday Works
Term 1 starts at pace with so many exciting events to come in our College calendar. We have also completed many significant projects over the summer break here on campus, in addition to the general maintenance and cleaning of buildings and grounds.
Our ICT and Maintenance teams have been working in overdrive to ensure we are ready for Day 1.
These projects include:

• Installing 28 new smart monitors in Junior School and 12 in Senior School
• New laptop roll out for staff and students 
• Major painting, including the entire DMPC 
• Complete refurbishment and modernisation of Year 6 classrooms

Traffic and Parking
We have continued to listen to our community and have expanded the number of car parks available to visitors in the Rickard Car Park. Car parking is at a premium at the College, however I believe we have, and continue to offer, the best solutions for parent drop off and pick up, investing heavily in infrastructure, consultancy advice and parking staff to manage this as effectively as possible.
No system is perfect, and we ask for your patience in putting the safety of all our students first and foremost. You can do this by following this KEY ADVICE:

• Driving with care and attention – students will appear from nowhere!
• Control your speed - maximum 20km on site at all times (this will be much less in busy periods)
• Listen to and follow traffic staff directions
• Above all, expect delays and be patient

If possible, think of other safe ways to get your children to and from school – there are a number of bus services to the College and consider the timing of your trips by car to avoid peak times.
We have also installed more signage to help understand parking spots. We have opened up the footpath in front of the Rickard Administration building to create safer space and installed new safety bollards in the shape of planters at the front of Rickard Administration.
The planters are there to protect our students. We have had numerous near misses with parent vehicles mounting the kerb in this area and almost hitting staff and students.
Our primary focus is student safety and again I ask you to follow the key advice and be mindful of obstructions when parking and opening doors.
No students should ever be, or need to be, on the road here or in any drop off space. Ensuring they leave vehicles on the passenger side will help with this.
We have had extensive grounds work done and work continues on our ovals.
Peter Sippel Oval now has an Entry Only from the main drive, and an Exit into Car Park 2 to reduce wear and tear.

This will mean cars leaving will need to follow the one-way system around Rickard Car Park. Traffic staff will adjust their timings here to ensure a fair flow of traffic. We hope this will also help with traffic queues into the drop off areas.
Again, please be patient and remember this is a school and student safety comes first.
We have several areas for drop off and pick up in the College. Parents can use any and all of these.  However, we strongly recommend Junior School and Pre-Prep use the Marble Arch entrance.
When using Marble Arch, I ask all parents to be mindful as this is part of our wider community, and to be considerate of residents’ homes and not to park on or block drives. It is also a two-way road and all drivers must keep left.
I thank all our parents for their continued support. We appreciate the patience the vast majority display in working with us. We will continue to monitor and listen to our community around traffic flow and parking. We review our plans with specialised consultants and will modify processes, where required, to improve the experience for all as best we can.
Have a great 2020 at A.B. Paterson College, as we celebrate our 30 years of operation!
Gary Smith - Director of Business Services

I would like to offer everyone a very warm welcome to the 2020 academic year. As always, the first week back after a long break is exciting and full of energy, and 2020 has proved to be no exception. The College Leaders were waiting in anticipation to welcome all new students to our community on Tuesday morning and all Year 12 students were proud to take part in the annual ceremony for the Induction of our Senior Leaders on Friday 31 January in the DMPC.
The College community gathered to witness Board Chair, Mr David Tanner, Members of the Board, Executive Principal/Chief Executive Officer Mr Grimes and Principal: Head of College Ms Sheehy, presenting our Year 12 students with their Senior Badges. This important event in our calendar signifies the transition of our Year 12 cohort into their final year at the College and formally acknowledges them as leaders of our student body.
After our College Captain, Sascha Lawton, led her peers in the Senior Pledge, each student received their badge and signed the Senior Register. This register is the same one that all Year 12 students have signed at their Senior Induction Ceremony since the College’s inception and represents each student’s acknowledgement of the duties and responsibilities they agree to undertake as a member of the Senior Cohort.
The Year 12 students and College community were captivated by the wonderful singing of the Year 6 Choir. Their performance of Travelling was delightful and beautifully conducted by Rachel Newcombe and accompanied by Lexene Marquenie.
In her College Captain’s address, Sascha Lawton reflected on how significant a year 2020 is, not just for our graduating Seniors, but for our entire College community with 30th Anniversary celebrations taking place.
This year, the Year 12 quote is, ‘You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step,’ spoken by Martin Luther King Jr., Sascha explained:
‘The most difficult part about doing something is taking that first step. You don’t need to be able to see every step that comes after it, as long as you have faith in your destination and journey. If you can keep climbing that staircase with full conviction and belief, everything else will follow through.
Today, we’re taking that first step.’
In response, Year 11 student, Jodie Down, offered words of encouragement and support and highlighted how the interactions that each and every Senior has with younger students has a profound impact, all contributing to the legacy they leave as a cohort. Year 6 student, Dior Duggan, spoke of the close relationship that Seniors build with the Junior School and encouraged the newly inducted Seniors to take their next steps into the world with courage, passion and a strong sense of self.
The Year 12 cohort entered the DMPC this afternoon as students of the College and exited through the centre aisle as inducted Seniors of A.B. Paterson College. On behalf of the entire College community, we wish our newly inducted Seniors the very best on their journey this year.
Charlotte Brook - Dean of Senior School

On 23 January, the College Leaders of 2020 attended a Bond University ‘Young Sandstone Leaders’ conference run by the team at Peer Power. The day consisted of workshops, group activities and presentations from Bond Staff and Vice-Chancellor scholarship recipients. Along with other college leaders from schools around the Gold Coast and Brisbane region, we delved into the true meaning of leadership and how it applies to us as leaders.
Our first activity of the day was dissecting any fears or worries we have about our student leadership positions and what effect it would have on us. It was surprising to see that the majority of leaders in the room all had the same fears about leadership, and especially the fear of failure. Director of Peer Power, Michael Knight focussed on the fear of failure and why we worry so much about failing. We learnt that if we don’t fear failure than we can’t dream success.
Our next session focussed on the topic of ‘Why’. We took time to understand the why and purpose of our leadership roles and what we want out of them. After two morning sessions with Michael, we all split into three groups and focussed on the four topics of Virtue, Malleable, Change and Wisdom.
Each topic had a different station with a group discussion and a team activity. In the Malleable workshop, we focussed on having a fixed vs growth mindset, and how it can determine lifelong learners. To further our understanding of the topic, we paired up with someone from another school to create a replica of the first aeroplane made by the Wright brothers using Play-Doh. The task demonstrated the true meaning of being malleable, and how you have to be open to being hammered or pressed into shape without breaking or cracking under pressure and responsibilities, just like a ball of Play-Doh.
With each group was a current Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship recipient from Bond University who worked with us in each rotation and answered any of our questions about leadership and university. To conclude the day, we had a final presentation from Bond University’s Indigenous Cultural Support Officer, Narelle Urquhart, who shared her life story of growing up in the stolen generation. Her story made us aware that you don’t need a badge or title to make you a great leader, but just the intentions to want to help others and lead with a willingness to succeed.
We all took away so much from the conference and it has certainly expanded our understanding of the type of leaders we want to be and what mark we want to leave at the College once we have graduated. It was very beneficial working with other students from other schools as we got to know their leadership positions, initiatives and challenges they face as leaders at their schools. The team at Peer Power and the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship recipients from Bond University worked with us all day to ensure we were aware of the true meaning of leadership and how we are to enforce it into our leadership roles.
Gabriella Alfieri - Mackellar House Captain 2020