Looking Back and Looking Forward

It is time to reflect on Term One of 2025. It is the right time to be looking back to see if goals have been met. Has your child done their best?

Looking back in this context means looking back to the hopes and excitement of the first days and weeks of Term One. Think back now: what were your hopes as a parent for your child’s learning? I feel sure that you wanted them to do their best.

Some of you have very young children, and others of you have children who are young adults in senior secondary. At all their levels of schooling, what were the hopes you had for them? Were there promises made? Did you and your child agree on a set of goals? If so, how have those goals gone? If not, what goals will you be setting for them as a result of your reflections on term one of 2025. Again, I feel very sure that you will be hoping your children do their best.

We don’t get to do this twice.

The Christian view of life is that this life on earth is a once-only event for us. We Christians believe that after this life finishes, we move into a different type of life. That new chapter of life will be unbounded by the moment-to-moment limitations of time. We will be free of the constraint of linear time, and therefore free to worship God joyfully and unendingly … and that is wonderful, and we need to be aware that in the meantime, while we dwell on earth we are given a task by God. Along with life comes responsibility. We have a joyful and challenging task, and that task is that we are to do our best.

We are to do our best with what we are given. God gives us days, weeks, years, school terms and term breaks, leisure and rest, jobs and service, and more and more and more opportunities to serve God joyfully. Some of those opportunities are easy and fun. Some of those opportunities feel scary and hard. Our Christian view of life is helped by the Chrisitan Bible which says: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength”. We are to do our best.

So, let’s work at this together; you and me parents. I’ll do all I can to spur the teachers on towards doing their best, and you do all you can to spur your students on towards doing their best.

Oh, and let me clarify something important about our motivation. Because we are a Christian school, there is often a deeper reason for the things we focus on. In a Christian school, we do not merely focus on doing our best so as to get into university or to get a good job. Those are good things. But in Christian schooling, we do our best because doing our best brings joy to God. God loves seeing his children (that’s us) doing the best they can do. God is like a parent watching us set goals and reach them, face struggles and work through them, meet people and be kind to them, and so on.

Let’s serve God joyfully by doing our best, as parents, as staff, and together: leading our students to serve God by doing their best too.

david gleeson, principal