What is a school?

Sometimes the answers to questions seem so obvious to us that we do not even stop to consider what we think and why.

This can certainly be true when we think about schools and our School. Our minds are filled with our experiences from our own past, our expectations of what school is and should be like, the emotional experience of our own children, and all of the hopes that we have for their education.

At its simplest, we would possibly say that school is an educational space where students are taught the academic requirements of the curriculum, reading, writing, numeracy, and the areas that we value for their success. Our thinking might be quite transactional – my child attends school in order to receive knowledge, skills and understanding from educational professionals. We might also include a desire for a positive social environment and experience, a place of opportunity, of understanding of themselves in relation to others.

“At its simplest, we would possibly say that school is an educational space where students are taught the academic requirements of the curriculum...”

Others again might describe what a school looks like, its structure and facilities. Although, I would argue that a school’s building spaces are one of the less significant aspects of a child’s education. This may sound strange at the very moment that we have launched our new gymnasium build and are drawing closer to the completion of the new Food Technology spaces. That is certainly not to deny the value of good educational spaces but rather to emphasise the educational engagement, relationships and daily interactions that form the nub of a student’s school life.

Whatever you might say about ‘school’ it often does not seem to capture the fullness of what is expected of schools in this day and age, and it probably does not even express the many different hopes and desires that we ourselves have for our schools as they train our children. What we can probably agree on, is that far more is expected of schools now than in the past – the curriculum itself expresses this change over generations.

What then can we say of schools that captures the ambition of a Christian school community for an education that not only addresses the academic and developmental needs of a child but also speaks to the eternal soul of a young person made in the image of their Creator? Perhaps the goal seems too lofty to even grapple with conceptually but that is exactly what we seek to do as a Christian school community in partnership with parents.

What we can highlight is that a Christian education seeks to explore and actively share the grace of God through educational relationships that not only informs a student but transforms their understanding of themselves and their own worth in relation to their Creator and others. Hence our vision is to be a ‘transformational Christian learning community’ where students’ lives are impacted in their academic understanding, emotional health, wellbeing, and spiritual maturity in a way that will impact their relationships with others in whatever sphere they enter in the future.

Thank you for your faithful support of transformational learning opportunities for your child in partnership with our School.

Scott Ambrose - Principal