Ms. Cara Darling returns to AVE Academy as Principal, bringing six years of history with the school, deep roots in our community, and a clear vision for the year ahead.
I’m very happy to be back at AVE, and genuinely excited about where the school is heading this year. Stepping back from day-to-day leadership for a while gave me the chance to reflect properly on where AVE is now and what we need to do to keep growing, and I’m bringing all of that thinking back into the role with me.
Before I stepped away, I spent six years leading and developing AVE, helping build many of the academic programs, systems, and culture that still shape the school today. Coming back means I already know our students, our families, our teachers, and the way AVE works, and that continuity matters as much as anything else I bring to the role.
The past two years weren’t idle ones. I went back to the US to complete further coursework toward my master’s in education, and I kept working alongside my co-founders on Aurora Borealis Labs, building Auri Bori, educational software designed to give schools, teachers, and families clearer information about how students are actually learning.
Now I’m officially back in Principal mode, welcoming a new school year full of firsts. This is our largest campus yet, with new classrooms, new buildings, and new sports fields. We also have our biggest international teaching team to date, more than 20 teachers, and our largest student body ever, over 320 students across Years 1 to 11.
It’s a big year, and I feel both challenged and motivated by it. There’s plenty of work ahead: strengthening academic rigor through Key Stage 3 to prepare students for Checkpoint and IGCSE exams, building literacy development in from Year 1, and putting structured support in place for our English language learners. But I’m looking forward to all of it, the wins, the inevitable chaos, and everything in between, working alongside a team I trust to help AVE grow into its next stage.
