From the Head of Primary's Desk

Dear Parents/Guardians

As someone who loves the great outdoors, Bear Grylls has always been a person who has intrigued me. Over the last couple of months, I have been reading his second autobiography, ‘Never Give Up’, and I have been captured by a phrase he encourages his boys to live by – stay wintered. 

He goes on to explain that we stay wintered by keeping our inner part tough, and toughness, like a muscle, needs to be worked to stay strong. He encourages us to allow our personal winters to not defeat us, but to learn from them to build our resilience.

Sometimes as parents (myself included), we only want our children to ‘succeed’. We don’t want them to face difficulties and we brush over any failures. Unfortunately, when we do this, we may miss out on a golden opportunity to equip our children for life-long learning and growth. It is during these times we need to be pointing them to God and helping them learn from their mistakes or setbacks.

Just one of the reasons I love teaching at HCC is that we do give our students opportunities to build their inner toughness. To try, fail, learn and try again. Students are given this opportunity in their classwork, chapel services, camps, sporting activities, friendships, and in how they relate to one another just to name a few. Sometimes they succeed, other times, they may struggle and fall short. And this is ok. The teachers at HCC are deeply committed to their students, your children, to help lead them in developing their inner toughness, their resilience, so that they may confidently face the next obstacle that comes across their path. 

So as we approach 2022, let’s take up Mr Higgins’ encouragement to CONNECT with God and one another. Let’s also commit to staying wintered and tackling any challenges that come our way, together. 

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Pete Bunyon

Head of Primary