Do You Remember Your Reasons For Choosing Christian Schooling For Your Children?

Dear Parents,

Can I tell a story of what happened last week? It will remind you why you chose this school, and it will remind us all why Christian schooling is worth preserving.

Your children might have let you know that last week on my birthday I put on a mini party for our staff and students to celebrate my turning sixty. (Yes, yes, I am so old, but I still feel fifty-nine). I gave our secondary students a sausage sizzle lunch. It was great fun, and I am so grateful to all the staff who sizzled and served the snags.

The thing that impacted me the most was the way our students, your children, behaved as they lined up, accepted their sausages, and moved off into their friendship groups, munching happily together. There was a feel, a good feel. There was a vibe, a good vibe. There was an atmosphere, a good, good atmosphere and that is significant in this time when some secondary schools apparently can be places where the feel, the vibe and the atmosphere…is maybe not so great.

Your children, singly or with their friends greeted me courteously, thanked me, and wished me ‘Happy Birthday’ in such a warm, respectful way that I wanted to tell you about them. The setting was informal, relaxed, friendly and you would have been so proud of your children. I was proud of your children, and they’re not even my children, they’re yours!

I have asked you this question before: Do you remember your reasons for choosing Christian schooling for your children?

The answer was demonstrated in the courtesy that your children showed on Friday.

There is a recurring theme that I hear again and again from applicant families who are hoping their children will be granted a place at this school; prospective parents are seeking a learning community that sets clear expectations for students. They want a school that is both firm and fair. They want their children to be both loved and disciplined. Parents want a school that is comfortable, confident and consistently setting boundaries and keeping the rules. This school is that school.

This Christian school relies on the teachings of Christ as central to all our work and decision-making, all our words and actions. And therefore, because our approach is simultaneously caring and rigorous, because our teachers set clear and reasonable boundaries for the students, and because this merely reinforces what you at home are teaching your children too, the result is what I experienced on Friday: beautiful manners and appropriate respect.

Well done to you parents, well done to our teachers, and how lovely that our secondary students, in contrast to what might happen among adolescents elsewhere, know how to show courtesy, gratitude and respect.

Let’s always commit to teaching your children right from wrong. Let’s stay committed to partnership with each other: home and school. Let’s freshly commit to working from this high benchmark of reinforcing positive, pro-social behaviour among our students so that our reputation and effectiveness as a Christian learning community continues to grow.

David Gleeson
Principal