Principal

On Friday 9 September, we welcomed a number of guests, students, teachers, staff, and members of the community, both past, and present, to join us in celebrating the last 25 years of Good News Lutheran College.

It was especially significant that we had so many special guests seated in front of us, who have been part of our journey to help us celebrate this special occasion. We have not gotten to where we are today, nor would we have the promising future ahead, if not for the leadership and vision of so many dedicated individuals.

We welcomed several special guests to the celebrations including past Principals Roger Schwarz, Jan Baker, and Simon Hughes, along with Pastor Milo Velebir and Pastor Cecil Schmalkuche, just to name a few.

It is my great honour to be able to continue the strategic and spiritual vision of these people. We all have different gifts that God has blessed us with, and the combination of their gifts has grown our unique culture. In the 25-year period and even before, when God chose different people to serve his purpose, preparing them, showing them guidance and wisdom, he would have had his protective and healing hand on them and the process of building and growing the school.

Twenty-five years, thousands of students, hundreds of staff and many building projects later, Good News Lutheran College has grown immeasurably from its humble beginnings in 1997. However, we could not be a successful school without our staff and students. Our staff have been and continue to be committed to educating and caring for our students and they have a strong belief in what is at the heart of a Lutheran Education. We are blessed to have staff who believe in what we offer and who work together to create the best outcomes for our students. To you, the students, and all our old scholars, you are the heart and soul of our college, the leaders, and maybe more importantly, the parents of tomorrow. I would like to thank our students for all the opportunities you take on and all the dreams you allow us to be a part of.

It’s always exciting to see our graduates and current students continue their studies and pursue dreams and careers in an amazing variety of areas as they realise that it's thanks to their parents, who valued the education that Good News Lutheran college offers.

To acknowledge this commemorative year, it is important to reflect on our history, traditions, identity, and values. We unveiled our college prayer, reintroduced our college song, and refreshed our college house emblems. We rely on each of you to keep these traditions alive, throughout your college journey.

When we looked at our values, we determined that our community is best characterised by striving for Integrity, Respect, Courage, and Grace. The point of difference for us as a Lutheran school is Grace!

As part of our 25-year celebrations, we began archiving our precious history with the intention of publishing a commemorative book. I am excited to announce that we have done just that, and it was unveiled at our Jubilee Gala Ball on Saturday 10 September 2022. When we began our journey into the history of Good News, I did not realise how much I didn’t know. Through playing a small part in researching a publication that would reflect the Good News Story, I have learnt so much. We have much to share with you and our publication will enable our community to learn with us and appreciate our history. Our students are why we are here, and it is so important that they are a part of our celebrations, have opportunities to learn about and appreciate our history. Every family in our college will receive a publication titled “The Good News Story”, as a token of how much we appreciate each one of you.

The book is only one of our gifts to the community. Our students have already enjoyed a sausage sizzle and a plant to take home that reminded us of the hard work of our volunteers, who gave their time and effort to raise money for our school. Each student also received a commemorative pin for their blazer. The students wear their college colours with pride, and I hope these gifts add to their feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves, indeed bigger than all of us together. When we walk with Jesus in our community, we walk with something bigger than we can imagine!

It is with great joy, that we showcased our students' works and I thank them and their teachers for providing that pleasure at our events on Friday. Their creativity never ceases to amaze me.