From the Principal

At the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth, he meets his disciples and gives them a job to do. He says, “Go reach the world, bring them into God’s family, teach them what I have taught you. Remember that I am with you to the end of time.”

I am certainly a long way from being the Messiah and the Son of God, but I have been thinking a great deal about what my final words to our community would be. They are not as succinct or wise as Jesus’ but I’ll give it a go.

I have been greatly blessed to have been able to serve this community as its Principal for these last 6 years. As a result of our hard work as a community, the school has grown in students, staff, facilities, programs and ministry. We are living proof of the power and blessing of a school committed to sharing God’s love with each other through the ministry of education.

While a Principal is responsible for a school, anything I have achieved has had a strong component of ‘we.’ Not a single achievement of mine was in my own strength, it was through the relationships and partnerships we have brought to life with God’s love and God’s wisdom. I said to a family recently at Open Day that great schools are not overly complicated. If you have a skilled and committed staff with supportive and united families, students get great results. Lakeside College is a great school and I know that it will only continue to grow in the future.

I have much to be thankful for and many to thank. 

I thank our tireless staff who have served us so diligently over these years - including the COVID pandemic which brought so much trouble to our world. I thank the staff for following me and leading me too when needed! I thank them for their grace and forgiveness. I thank them for the love, care and compassion they have shown me, each other and our community.

I thank the families of the College. Rarely a week goes by at Lakeside without a family contacting me to thank a member of staff for their work - usually the care they have taken with their child. I thank our families for committing to the vision and mission of the College. So many schools report on the negative relationships between staff and parents - so very little of this happens at Lakeside and this is a testament to the love and care we have for each other.

Most importantly, I thank the students. They really are great human beings and are trying to be the best they can be for the benefit of their neighbours. I thank them for laughing at my jokes and for putting up with my teaching, which often meant I couldn’t be in class in person due to meetings. I thank them for giving us all the spark needed to keep going in the toughest of situations. They have inspired me.

As I leave, I ask one thing. I ask the community to support the new Principal as they have supported me. Pray for them, extend grace, support them, remember that like me, they are not perfect and make mistakes, but their commitment to the students, staff and families in this community will be unwavering. 

As for some final words, here goes:

• Keep looking out for every member in our local and global community and share God’s love with them
• Never stop learning - make learning your highest priority for God’s glory. Use your learning to the very highest level to help others
• Never, never, never forget that God’s love for you is so deep and wide that he gave up his son Jesus so that you would have eternal life and eternal assurance.

Thank you Lakeside College. May God continue to empower you to learn, care and achieve in order to give glory to God and serve the world in love.

Blessings

Tom