Leadership News

Why Aladdin?

 This week will see the product of many months of work come to fruition as this year's musical Aladdin Jr hits the stage. As has been our tradition, the production team works hard to find a musical that is not only fun and entertaining to watch but also challenges us to think about how the real world works and our response to it. 

The underlying theme this year is - identity. Aladdin JR explores the tyranny of the world's encouragement to look within yourself for your identity. An approach drives our natural tendency to search for our identity through power, wealth, and influence. An approach that while enticing is in fact a fool's errand.

Jobs and careers, because they are intricately linked to financial success and status which are often places where we search for and for some find our identity. Relationship status, appearance, grades, and reputation are also often used as the foundation of our identity. Sadly, none of these things are permanent, they are not solid foundations on which to form and shape our identity. Basing our identity on things like success, wealth, power, physical appearance does nothing but set us up for inevitable disappointment.

God, however, is unchanging. He is reliable. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. If we seek to find and form our identity in Him, we will never be let down because He has proven time and time again to be trustworthy.  

Understanding our identity in God starts with understanding who He is, what He says about Himself, and what He says about us. 

Brittany Yesudasan encourages us saying that if we put our faith in Jesus, we gain a new identity in Him. The more we get to know Jesus through His word and time in prayer, the more we will understand our identity in Him. This process of identify formation in Christ is life changing, because allows us to use whatever power, wealth or influence we might have (not to shape ourselves but) to better the world, and serve others as disciples of Christ, confident that no matter what happens we are eternally valued and loved.

To all those talented and passionate students, staff and parents behind this year’s production of Aladdin Jr. Thank you for sharing your gifts and talents and providing a great night's entertainment for us all.  

Blessings,

Mr Andrew Manning, Principal

Teaching Kids to be Kind

Kindness is one of the four expectations of the Bayside Way. While we expect it, it can only be demonstrated by our children if we teach it and model it.

Rachael Tomlinson writes on the Happy Families website, that parents must create opportunities for kindness, model kindness, speak kindly, encourage helping and build emotional language in children to help them build an awareness and practice of kindness.

To read the full article, go to the Happy Families website. Bayside is a member and access is free with the password happybcc.

Whole School Assembly

The next whole school assembly will be on Monday 29 May at 9am in the K-Block Gym.

My Christian School Website

Bayside Christian College values the genuine faith of its staff. However, the Australian Law Reform Commission has released a consultation paper which would prevent schools like ours from choosing staff for their active lived faith.  My Christian Schools website has been launched in association with the Australian Association of Christian Schools because it's time they heard from some actual parents—like you!

If you value the contribution of Christian staff and teachers, this is your opportunity to have your voice heard. Please visit MyChristianSchool.au and send a message to your MP about the difference Christian teachers and staff make in our school.

Blessings,

Mrs Toni Steinbergs, DeputyPrincipal

Head of Teaching and Learning

As I have embarked on a nice trip and enjoyed a period of leave over the last 6 weeks, I have had the opportunity to reflect and spend some time reading. I found myself coming back to one of the most formative books in my teaching career: On Christian Teaching by David Smith. 

In Chapter 3, Smith explores the idea of ‘patterns that matter’. He opens this chapter this chapter by stating:

“I have found that raising the idea that there might be Christian ways to teach evokes some recurring anxieties even amongst Christian colleagues. Does it mean ignoring research or experience and letting theology decide what works? … Does there have to be Christian version of everything? Can’t teaching math be just teaching math? … More than one thing is happening when we teach and it all happens at once, and although we have focal learning goals, faith frames our approach.” pg. 27

As Smith notes, we can learn a lot from educational research (and I spend hours reading and listening to podcasts from all over the world) and there are many secular methods of excellent teaching practice. At Bayside however, we believe that all knowledge and wisdom comes from the mouth of God (Proverbs 2:6) and without faith, there is no rudder for education and learning. 

Our teachers spend a great deal of time thinking about their ‘deep hope’ for each lesson they teach, the bigger understandings about God’s Kingdom and His world in which we live. We hope that in the conversations you have with your child at home about their learning, that these big questions and deep hopes are clearly evident and provide opportunities for deep and rich discussion in your home as well. 

Joel Williamson, Head of Teaching and Learning

Current Vacancies

Human Resources Officer

Bayside Christian College is seeking to appoint a suitably skilled and experienced Human Resources Officer for an immediate start.

The role is permanent part-time, with a time fraction of 0.4 FTE, 15.2 hours per week during school terms, to be worked over two-three days per week.  

Learning Assistants

Bayside Christian College is seeking to appoint Learning Assistants (also known as Teacher Aides) to fill a number of part-time (one to five days per week during school hours) vacancies in our Primary School. The role of Learning Assistants is to support the inclusion of students with a range of needs into school activities.

College AGM

The Bayside Christian College Board warmly invites Association members, College parents/carers and staff to attend our 2023 Annual General Meeting. The Association for Christian Education of Frankston Inc. will meet on Thursday 22 June at 7PM in G-Block on South Campus. 

This is a great opportunity to engage in discussions on the school’s performance and the shaping of future opportunities. Supper provided. Please ensure you indicate your attendance by no later than Thursday 15 June at https://www.trybooking.com/CIDWL